Calliphora niveata Johnston, Szpila, Pape, Meiklejohn, Foley & Wallman, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Johnston, Nikolas P.
name: Szpila, Krzysztof
name: Pape, Thomas
name: Meiklejohn, Kelly A.
name: Foley, Liam B.
name: Wallman, James F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Calliphoridae
Calliphora
Calliphora niveata

description: Calliphora niveata sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 35535CA1-25C3-4F40-952F-C590CA45C308
Fig. 4
Diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from all other members of the clarki -group by the unique combination of the basicosta black, arista plumose, abdominal tergites with weak or no microtomentum, and males with the cercus almost straight in the lateral view, without a concave region in the basal half.
Etymology
The species epithet niveata stems from the Latin ‘ nivis ’ meaning ‘of snow’ and alludes to the habitats of the Australian Snowy Mountains from which this species has been collected.
Type material
Holotype AUSTRALIA – NSW • ♂; Guthega, Kosciuszko National Park; 1 Feb. 1974; K.R. Norris leg.; ANIC.
Paratypes AUSTRALIA – NSW • 3 ♂♂; same data as for holotype; ANIC • 8 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀; Rainbow Lake Walking Track, Kosciuszko National Park; 36°22′08″ S, 148°28′30″ E; 30 Jan. 2023; N.P. Johnston, J.F. Wallman, A. Grzywacz and K. Szpila leg.; ANIC.
Description
This species is morphologically similar to C. clarki, except for the following character states.
Male
HEAD. Occiput with grey microtomentum, with black setulae only. Parafacial plate black, with brassy/ grey microtomentum, with several irregular rows of black setae. Face with brassy/grey microtomentum. Facial ridge setose, with irregular row of black setae for ~0.70 × length. Postpedicel twice length of pedicel, dark brown with small orange region in basal 0.20, with white microtomentum (most visible when viewed dorsally).
THORAX. Greater ampulla dark brown, with dense short yellow setulae; lesser ampulla brown, with dense short yellow setulae. Haltere brown. Anterior spiracle dark brown. Posterior spiracle complete, dark brown, concolourous with anterior spiracle.
CHAETOTAXY. Acrostichal setae: 2+2 (presutural + postsutural; rarely 2+3); 2 notopleural setae; no anterior postpronotal seta; 3 strong basal postpronotal setae; 1 pair of discal scutellar setae.
WING. Basicosta black. Upper calypter white, with contrasting brown margin.
ABDOMEN. T1+2–T5 metallic green, without obvious microtomentum.
MALE TERMINALIA. Cercus. Equal in length to phallus; in lateral view, appearing slightly curved downward; in posterior view, fused in proximal half, angled towards each other, touching in distal 0.25. Surstylus. Equal in length to cercus, setose; in lateral view, curved slightly downwards; in posterior view, curved towards phallus. Phallus. In lateral view, epiphallus equal in length to post-gonite, hooked in distal 0.1. Pre-gonite half of length of post-gonite, triangular. Post-gonite curved, with broad rounded tip. Hypophallic lobe serrated on anterior margin, sclerotised for entire length. Paraphallus straight, not reaching posterior margin of hypophallic lobe. Acrophallus straight, mesohypophallus weakly or not sclerotised in distal half, sclerotised in proximal half.
Female
As for male, except in the following respects:
HEAD. Frontal stripe broad for entire length, one pair of outer vertical setae.
ABDOMEN. S5 uncleft.
Ecology
Unknown.
Distribution
AUSTRALIA: NSW.
Remarks
Label data indicate that this species has been collected above 1600 m altitude.
description: Published as part of Johnston, Nikolas P., Szpila, Krzysztof, Pape, Thomas, Meiklejohn, Kelly A., Foley, Liam B. & Wallman, James F., 2025, A species-group framework to unravel blowfly diversity: integrative revision of the Calliphora clarki-group (Diptera: Calliphoridae), pp. 94-118 in European Journal of Taxonomy 989 on pages 108-110, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2025.989.2887, http://zenodo.org/record/15351100