Asiobaccha taronja Mengual, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mengual, Ximo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Asiobaccha
Asiobaccha taronja

description: <i>Asiobaccha taronja</i> Mengual sp. nov. (Figures 10c, d, e, g, 13c, d) <i>Description</i> <i>Male: Head.</i> Face narrow with distinct facial tubercle, yellow, yellow pilose, yellow pollinose except tubercle shiny; gena narrow, yellow; lunule yellow, shiny; frons yellow ventrally, mostly black, pale pilose, white-silver pollinose laterally and dorsally, shiny basomedially dorsad to lunule; vertical triangle narrow, black; antenna yellow, yellow pilose; arista brown, yellow basally, bare; eye bare; occiput very narrow, black, whitesilver pollinose, entirely yellow pilose (Figure 10g). <i>Thorax.</i> Entirely orange-yellow; scutum orange pollinose medially, with almost no pile; without mesonotal fringe; scutellum yellow, yellow pilose, subscutellar fringe absent (Figure 10c). Pleuron yellow pollinose; anterior anepisternum almost bare, with a few short, yellow pile; metaepisternum pilose ventrad to spiracle; metasternum bare; calypter small, reduced, orange-yellow; plumula absent; halter pedicel orange, capitulum dark; posterior spiracular fringes orange (Figure 10e). <i>Wing</i>: alula narrow, narrower than costal cell, bare; anal lobe reduced. Wing membrane hyaline, stigma yellow, extensively microtrichose except cell BM bare on basal 2/3, cell R bare on basal 1/3, and cells CuP and anal lobe basally. <i>Legs</i>: entirely orange-yellow. <i>Abdomen.</i> Petiolate, unmargined, mainly black pilose except tergum 1 pale pilose and tergum 2 pale pilose medially and basally. Tergum 1 orange-yellow; tergum 2 orangeyellow with a brownish fascia on posterior margin; tergum 3 orange yellow on anterior 2/3, darker posteriorly; tergum 4 black with a yellow fascia on anterior 1/4, tergum 5 black (Figure 10c, e); sterna orange-yellow except sternum 4 black on posterior 1/2; male genitalia yellow, large, with epandrium and hypandrium enclosed under sternum 4, epandrium with a posterodorsal elongation and surstylus placed posteromedially, superior lobes expanded laterally (Figures 10d, 13c, d). <i>Female.</i> Unknown. <i>Variation.</i> The holotype has tergum 3 darker, and the paratype male misses the head. <i>Length (N = 1).</i> Body, 14.0 mm; wing, 13.0 mm. <i>Geographical distribution</i> Species known only from Solomon Islands. <i>Etymology</i> The specific epithet is derived from the Catalan <i>taronja</i> meaning orange. Species epithet is to be treated as adjective. <i>Differential diagnosis</i> This species is very distinct, mostly orange-yellow with terminal terga black, with a broad head and a narrow face, and very large male genitalia, unique among other species of this genus (Figure 13c, d). <i>Asiobaccha taronja</i> belongs to a species group with pale markings on abdomen, narrow alula, and without mesonotal fringe, which occur from Indonesia south and eastwards. This species has a short and robust abdominal pedicel (tergum 2) compared with the species group with mesonotal fringe (e.g. <i>A. virtuosa</i> and <i>A. nubilipennis</i>, among others) and it is very easy to distinguish from other species, such as <i>A. marissae</i> and <i>A. bicolor</i>, by the large male genitalia and the overall body colouration, especially the orange mesonotum. <i>Type locality</i> Solomon Islands: Guadalcanal Province, Paripao, 09°33 <i>′</i> S, 160°20 <i>′</i> E. <i>Material examined</i> Type material. <i>Holotype</i>, male, deposited in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) and labelled: <i>‘</i> SOLOMON IS. // Guadalcanal // Paripao, 22 May <i>′</i> 60 <i> ’ ‘C. W. O <i>′</i> Brien</i> // Collector <i>’ ‘</i> HOLOTYPE // <i>Asiobaccha</i> // <i>taronja</i> // <i>des. X. Mengual 2014’</i> [red; second and third lines handwritten] (specimen photographed). <i>Paratypes</i>: SOLOMON ISLANDS: Isabel Prov., Santa Isabel Island, Molao, 29 June 1960, C.W. O <i>′</i> Brien [1&amp;male;, ZFMK, ZFMKDIP 00011949].
description: Published as part of <i>Mengual, Ximo, 2016, A taxonomic revision of the genus Asiobaccha Violovitsh (Diptera: Syrphidae), pp. 2585-2645 in Journal of Natural History 50</i> on pages 2628-2629, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2016.1206634, http://zenodo.org/record/3994636