Sphegina (Asiosphegina) malaisei Hippa, Steenis & Mutin, 2015, sp. n.
Creators: name: Hippa, Heikki
name: Steenis, Jeroen Van
name: Mutin, Valeri A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Sphegina
Sphegina malaisei

description: Sphegina (Asiosphegina) malaisei sp. n.
Figs 10 A–E
MALE. Body length 7.0– 7.5 mm, wing length 5.6–6.2 mm. Head. Face strongly concave and moderately projected antero-ventrally; frontal prominence moderately developed (somewhat similar to Figs 1J, K). Width of vertex at anterior ocellus:width of head 1:3.8; the depth of occipital fossa ca. 1/4 of the width of an eye in dorsal view. Width of face:width of head 1:4.2. Face black, medio-ventrally brownish; pale pollinose. Gena brownish. Frons and vertex dull black; lunula shiny brown; frons with a weak narrow medial furrow, with pale erected pile. Occiput black; pale pollinose. Antenna brown; basoflagellomere paler than scapus and pedicellus, sometimes red; arista distinctly pilose. Thorax. Colour black, weakly pollinose, with bluish tinge; scutum with very short adpressed pale pile; scutellum with longer adpressed yellowish pile than scutum, with a pair of long, yellow setae at apical margin. Wing. Hyaline, stigma yellowish. Legs. Pro- and mesoleg yellow except tarsomeres 3, 4 and 5 or only 4 and 5 black. Metaleg: coxa dark; trochanter yellow, with dark transverse carina ventrally on the apical part; femur black, the narrower curved basal part yellow; metatibia with a small apico-ventral tooth, the colour dark brown to blackish, the extreme base and a broad annulus on the apical 1/2 yellow; metatarsus black. Abdomen. Length ratio of tergites I, II, III and IV 1:4.0:2.4:1.5; colour of tergites black; anterior 1/3 of tergite III reddish; the pile of tergites pale, short and adpressed, becoming longer towards the lateral margin; tergite I with 2 widely separated strong black setae at lateral margin; sternite IV (Figs 10 A–B) black; pile pale, the strong setae and bristles black; sternite VI (Fig. 10 A) with a narrow finger-like process and a trace of a more posterior broad tubercle, black, the pile long and pale; sternites VII and VIII simple, black, with long pale pile. Genitalia, Figs 10 C–E. Note the strong asymmetry of surstyli and superior lobes and the two small lobes on the medial side of surstylus. At the ventral margin of the superior lobe there are four sclerotized tooth- or claw-like projections on the right side and three on the left side (the more posterior ones on the right side are not easily observed in Fig. 8 C). FEMALE. Body length 6.0– 7.5 mm, wing length 5.5–6.5 mm. Similar to male except for the normal sexual dimorphism. Ventral part of face and frontal prominence slightly more produced. Pro- and mesotarsus with only tarsomeres 4 and 5 black. Length ratio of tergites I, II, III and IV 1:3.5:2.0:1.7; tergite III with an oval yellow macula antero-medially; tergite I with one strong black seta laterally near base; tergite III as broad as long; tergite IV broader than long; tergite V reddish, with long pale pile; tergite VI medially divided by a membranous strip into two bare semicircular parts; sternite IV trapezoidal, brown, as long as or slightly longer than broad, posteriorly with rather long adpressed pale pile; sternite V brown, posteriorly rather rounded, longer than broad [1.5:1.0], with very long pale pile especially near the posterior margin.
Type material. HOLOTYPE. ♂, N.E. Burma, Kambaiti, 8000 ft., 12.v.1934, R. Malaise (SMNH). PARATYPES. 1♂ with same data except 2000 m., 23.iv. (SMNH); 1♀ with same data as holotype except 2000 m., 11.v. (SMNH); 1♀ with same data except 2000 m., 18.v. (SMNH); 1♀ with same data except 2000 m., 25.v. (SMNH); 1♀ with same data except 2000 m., 4.vi. (SMNH); 1♂ with same data except 7000 ft., 2.v. (BMNH); 1♀ with same data except 7000 ft., 9.v. (BMNH); 1♂ and 1♀ with same data except 7000 ft., 14.v. (SMNH, NBC); 2♂ with same data except 7000 ft., 15.v. (SMNH, NBC); 1♀ with same data except 7000 ft., 16.v. (SMNH); 1♂ with same data except 7000 ft., 18.v. (SMNH); 1♀ with same data except 7000 ft., 26.v., (NBC); 1♂ with same data except 7000 ft., 9.v. (NBC).
Etymology. The name is in memory of René Malaise who collected the remarkable material of Sphegina dealt with in this paper.
Discussion. Sphegina malaisei is similar to S. carinata. For further discussion, see under the latter.
description: Published as part of Hippa, Heikki, Steenis, Jeroen Van & Mutin, Valeri A., 2015, The genus Sphegina Meigen (Diptera, Syrphidae) in a biodiversity hotspot: the thirty-six sympatric species in Kambaiti, Myanmar, pp. 1-67 in Zootaxa 3954 (1) on page 21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3954.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/288397