Paropesia grisea Shima, 2014, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Shima, Hiroshi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tachinidae
Paropesia
Paropesia grisea

description: Paropesia grisea sp. nov.
Figs. 2, 16–26
Diagnosis. Medium-sized pale yellowish gray flies; palpus reddish yellow, darkened apically; gena about 4/9 of eye height; 1st flagellomere about 3 times as long as pedicel in male and female; hind tibia with 2 preapical dorsal setae; abdominal syntergite 1+2 with median discal setae and 3rd to 5th tergites with discal setae.
Description. Male. Head black in ground color on fronto-orbital plate, upper face, genal dilation and occiput, reddish brown on parafacial, lower face and upper gena below eye; dense pale yellowish gray-white pruinosity on fronto-orbital plate, parafacial, face and upper gena, grayish white pruinosity on genal dilation and occiput; antenna brown-black, narrow basal and apical portions of 1st flagellomere slightly reddish brown; palpus reddish brown, darkened on apical 1/3. Vertex about 1/7 of head width; frontal vitta well widened anteriorly, nearly as wide as fronto-orbital plate at middle; parafacial slightly narrowed below, subequal in width to 1st flagellomere at middle height; face well concave, lower margin warped forward, slightly extending beyond base of vibrissa; gena about 0.44 eye height, genal dilation occupying lower and posterior 2/3 of gena. Inner vertical seta about 1/2 as long as eye height; outer vertical seta absent; ocellar seta fine hair-like, at most 1/2 as long as inner vertical seta; no orbital setae; 13–14 rather fine frontal setae, lowest seta nearly level with base of pedicel; fronto-orbital plate with a row of short and fine black hairs outside row of frontal setae; vibrissa inserted above level of lower margin of face by about 1/2 length of pedicel; 7–8 subvibrissal setae; facial ridge with several fine short hairs on its lower 1/4. Antenna falling short of lower margin of face by about length of pedicel; pedicel bearing several short black hairs and a long seta, the latter about 1.5 times as long as pedicel; 1st flagellomere about 3 times as long as pedicel; arista long, about 1.5 times as long as 1st flagellomere and pedicel combined, 1st aristomere shorter than wide, 2nd aristomere slightly longer than wide, 3rd thickened on basal 1/4. Prementum short, about 3/7 as long as eye height; palpus nearly cylindrical, only weakly widened near apex, nearly as long as pedicel and 1st flagellomere combined.
Thorax black in ground color, with rather dense pale yellowish gray-white pruinosity; dorsum with 5 broad longitudinal vittae, median vitta absent on presutural area of scutum; pleura with thin grayish white pruinosity. All thoracic hairs black; 2 presutural and 3 postsutural acrostichal setae; 4 postsutural supra-alar setae, anteriormost seta shorter than notopleural seta and anterior intra-alar seta, 2nd anterior seta fine and shorter than others; scutellum with 2 discal setae slightly longer than scutellum, 3 pairs of marginal setae and an additional pair of short setae present at base of scutellum anterior to basal seta, which is about 1.5 times as long as scutellum, basal, subapical and apical setae nearly subequal in length and about 2 times as long as scutellum, apical setae crossed; distance between bases of subapical scutellar setae about 3 times that between basal and subapical setae of corresponding side.
Wing hyaline, evenly and weakly tinged with pale brown; basicosta brown; lower calypter pale yellowish white. Base of vein R4+5 with 1 fine setula dorsally and ventrally. Costa between subcosta and vein R1 about 2/5 as long as distance between R1 and R2+3 and 2/3 as long as distance between R2+3 and R4+5; bend of vein M rather angled, about 2 times closer to wing margin than to dm-cu crossvein. Lower calypter with rather long fringe.
Legs black, pulvilli dull yellowish. Fore tibia with 2 fine posterior setae; mid tibia with 1 anterodorsal and 2 posterodorsal setae; hind tibia with a sparsely set row of anterodorsal setae irregular in length, 3–4 posterodorsal and 2 posteroventral setae, and with 2 preapical dorsal setae, preapical posterodorsal seta absent; claws and pulvilli very long, fore claws and pulvilli nearly as long as combined length of 4th and 5th tarsomeres.
Abdomen long ovate, black in ground color, entirely covered with rather dense pale yellowish gray-white pruinosity, weak median longitudinal vitta visible on 3rd to 5th tergite and a pair of irregular shaped spots appearing with direction of light on 4th and 5th tergites. Hairs on dorsum fine, short and suberect, sparser on 5th tergite; syntergite 1+2 with one pair each of long and strong median marginal and lateral marginal setae; 3rd tergite with one pair each of median discal and median marginal setae and 1–2 pairs of lateral marginal setae; 4th tergite with one pair of long and strong median discal and a row of strong marginal setae; 5th tergite with one pair of median discal and a row of marginal setae; 2nd to 4th sternites concealed under edges of tergites.
Male terminalia: Fifth sternite quadrate, median cleft very narrow and long, almost occupying posterior 5/6 of its length, with fine short hairs; cerci in dorsal view constricted at basal 1/3, widened at basal 1/2 then narrowed to apex, widely separated on apical 1/2, inner wall well excavated, in lateral view nearly straight, dorsal margin sharply curved ventrally at basal 1/5; surstylus in dorsal view flattened, with dense fine hairs on apical 2/3, weakly curved inward, in lateral view narrow, nearly straight, distinctly shorter than cerci; hypandrium flat; pregonite narrow, weakly curved dorsally; postgonite broader than pregonite; phallus long and flattened, sharply folded at basal 1/3 then refolded and extending posteriorly, a long expansion present at the first folding, apical 2/3 broadly membranous, 3 very narrow sclerites extending to apex, apex widened; ejaculatory apodeme large, ax-like in dorsal Female. Differing from male as follows: Vertex about 0.27 of head width; frontal vitta weakly widened anteriorly, about 1.5 times as wide as fronto-orbital plate at middle; head setae stronger, inner vertical seta about 5/7 of eye height; fine outer vertical seta slightly more than 1/3 length of inner vertical seta; ocellar seta about 1/2 as long as inner vertical seta; 1 inclinate and reclinate orbital seta, about 2/3 as long as inner vertical seta; 2 proclinate orbital setae, anterior seta longer and about 5/6 as long as inner vertical seta; 5 frontal setae; palpus reddish yellow, darkened on apical 1/4; 3 supra-alar setae; mid tibia with 1 ventral seta; claws and pulvilli slightly shorter than 5th tarsomere. Female terminalia: 6th tergite short and entire, with strong setae marginally; 6th sternite distinctly longer than 5th sternite, invaginated on anterior 1/3, posterior margin projected medially, with minute blunt spines; 7th tergite nearly as long as 6th, with a row of strong hairs marginally; 7th sternite flat, semi-circular and dish-like in posterior view; 8th tergite indistinct; a small finger-like pouch produced on posterior margin of 7th tergite, which bears minute spinules; 8th sternite modified into strong piercer, curved ventrally; epiproct rather broad, weakly sclerotized, with a few hairs.
Body length: 8.8–9.7 mm.
Holotype male, Hyakuzawa, Mt. Iwaki, Aomori Pref., Honshu, Japan, 22.vii.1978, S. Fukushi (BLKU).
Paratype: 1 female, Oirase, Towada City, Aomori Pref., Honshu, Japan, 1.viii.1979, K. Ohara (KUM).
Etymology. Specific name is taken from the grayish abdominal color of this species.
Distribution. Japan (Honshu).
Remarks. A male of Paropesia nigra was recorded by Chao et al. (1990) from Thianmushan, Zhejiang, China, but this was a misidentification. The authors mentioned that the Chinese specimen, which they identified as P. nigra, has median marginal setae on abdominal syntergite 1+2, median discal setae on 3rd and 4th abdominal tergites, and dense yellowish pruinosity on anterior 4/5 of 3rd and 3/4 of 4th abdominal tergites. These character states are not found in the female holotype (and only known specimen) of P. nigra and unlikely to be sexual differences. The male terminalia, especially the phallus, illustrated by Chao et al. (1990) are peculiar and appear to be similar to P. grisea. It is difficult to recognize details of the terminalia from the illustration, but P. nigra sensu Chao et al. (1990) may be close to P. grisea described above.
Paropesia nigra was recorded from Zhejiang, China, by Chao et al. (1998), Chao & Zhou (2001), Fang & Wu (2001), Hua (2006) and O’Hara et al. (2009). All these authors most likely followed the misidentification of Chao et al. (1990). Zhang et al. (2010) also recorded this species from Liupan Mountain, Ningxia, China. It is difficult at this time to judge if this species is the same as P. nigra of Chao et al. (1990).
description: Published as part of Shima, Hiroshi, 2014, The parerigonine genus Paropesia Mesnil (Diptera, Tachinidae), with descriptions of three new species from East Asia, pp. 576-590 in Zootaxa 3827 (4) on pages 583-586, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3827.4.8, http://zenodo.org/record/230552