Drosophila (Sophophora) azteca Sturtevant and Dobzhansky 1936
Creators: name: Grimaldi, David A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Drosophilidae
Drosophila
Drosophila azteca

description: Drosophila (Sophophora) azteca Sturtevant and Dobzhansky   Figures 7C, 9D–E, 11C  
 Drosophila (Sophophora) azteca Sturtevant and Dobzhansky, 1936: 577.   
 DIAGNOSIS: Thorax dark black-brown. Male sex comb on ta 1 typically with 4–5 teeth (ranging from 3–7; Sulerud and Miller, 1966), ta 2 with 1 tooth; length of male ta 1 slightly longer (1.14×) than ta 2; base of inner ventral epandrial lobe with furrows and microtrichia (a feature shared with tolteca: Miller and Sanger, 1969; fig. 11); surstylus with 5–6 prensisetae.   
TYPE: Lectotype, ♂, selected from series of 2 ♂ and 6 ♀ specimens all labeled as just “Oax 2 [i.e., Oaxaca, Mexico; handwritten]/ A.H. Sturtevant Collection 1970 [printed].” In the original description the type locality is mentioned as being “ Oaxaca: Cerro San Jose” (Sturtevant and Dobzhansky, 1936). The male specimen to which Steyskal (in his writing) attached a penciled note “azteca type” was labeled 12 June 2023 by me as the lectotype. In the USNM.  
SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Besides the type series (above), the following (all in the AMNH):  
COLOMBIA: Leticia, Colombia, VI /64, Sarah Pipkin, 1♂ (dissected, ASG06). EL SALVADOR: Volcan Santa Ana, 5670 ft. 26.6 / Rep de El Salvador / Nov 1953 W.B. Heed, 2 ♂ (1 dissected, ASG16). MEXICO: 26 mi. E Zamora, Mich [oacan], Mex / MR Wheeler, FA Cowan, Aug. 1947 / 1795.5 (1♂, dissected, ASG14). UNITED STATES: California: Kern Co., Kern River Canyon 7/49, M.R. Wheeler (1♂); Lobos Creek, San Francisco, Calif. VII/20/62 / WE Kelson Collector / emerged VII/24-26/62, reared from spittlebug (7 specimens, 2 dissected: ASG13 [♂], ASG15 [♀]).  
 DISTRIBUTION: Miller (1958) indicated that this species occurs from northern California through Arizona, New Mexico, southern Texas, throughout Mexico to Guatemala. It has also been reported from El Salvador (Heed, 1957) and central Colombia (Cundimarca, above 1600 m) (Villamizar and Alvarez, 2010). To this can be added the most southerly record from South America, from Leticia, Colombia (cited above). This locality is very unusual for azteca or any obscura -group species in the tropics, since it lies on the upper Amazon River, at the southernmost tip of Colombia adjacent to Peru and Brazil, at an elevation of only about 100 m. The closely related D. tolteca supposedly prefers lower elevations in the neotropics, but the Leticia specimen is clearly distinguished from tolteca (figs. 9d, E; 11C; cf. figs. 9l, 12E).   
 COMMENTS: The most unusual host record in the obscura group are the specimens cited above of azteca collected in San Francisco by Kelson in 1962, from spittlebugs. This was based on research of Aphrophora spittlebugs (Aphrophoridae: Cercopoidea) by Kelson for his M.Sc. thesis (Kelson, 1964a), then soon published (Kelson, 1964b). The host record was not reported in the journal publication. The spittlebugs were studied on Monterey pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) and Knobcone pine (Pinus attenuata Lemmon) in the San Francisco area. The immediate assumption would be that the larvae were grazing in the spittle masses, except that Kelson in his thesis specified the puparia were found “in the spittle mass and on the nymphs of A. canadensis ” (Kelson 1964a: 17) (italics mine). Vinton Thompson, who has extensively studied the spittlebugs in this area (e.g., Thompson, 2021) informed me Oct. 24, 2023, that “I have collected lots of A. canadensis spittles near Monterey but have seen no larvae or pupae [of Drosophilidae] myself. On the other hand, I was not specifically looking.” Drosophila azteca almost certainly does not have an obligatory relationship with spittlebugs as does Cladochaeta (Grimaldi and Nguyen, 1999), which makes it very unusual that D. azteca pupated on the spittlebug nymphs.
description: Published as part of Grimaldi, David A., 2024, The Drosophila (Sophophora) obscura species group in the Americas (Diptera: Drosophilidae): review, revisions, and three new species, pp. 1-44 in American Museum Novitates 2024 (4015) on pages 17-22, DOI: 10.1206/4015.1, http://zenodo.org/record/12171426