Aristobatina metamelasma Marshall 2014, sp. n.
Creators: name: Marshall, Stephen A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Micropezidae
Aristobatina
Aristobatina metamelasma

description: Aristobatina metamelasma sp. n.
Figs 1–6
Etymology: From the Greek words meta (near) and melasma (black spot), referring to the distinctive discal macula on the wing of this and the closely related A. melasma.
Description:
Length (head to wing tip): 13–15 mm.
Colour: Head orange anteriorly, reddish brown posteriorly, swollen part of frontal vitta dark reddish brown; thorax dark reddish brown; abdomen shiny blue­black; fore femur orange in basal ⅔, brown distally; mid and hind femur uniformly orange except for a small dark area at apex; mid tarsus dark brown or black; basal ½ of tarsomere 1 of hind leg pale, tarsus otherwise dark brown to black; abdominal pleurae grey on pinned types. Head: Scape bare except for marginal ring of short setae; pedicel short and setose, with some longer ventral apical setae; frontal vitta with strongly convex elongate oval area surrounding ocelli and extending half the distance from anterior ocellus to anterior margin of frons; 2 pairs of fronto-orbital setae, 1 large and above level of ocelli, 1 smaller below; postocellar, outer and inner vertical setae well­developed.
Thorax: Cervical sclerite flat, dull, microtrichose; proepisternum with a few long marginal ventral setae on posterior ½; katepisternum with double row of thin black setae, anterior row with only 5 setae, barely overlapping with lower end of posterior row; scutellum with 1 pair of marginal setae only, 1 small to minute seta between postalar and dorsocentral setae.
Wing: CuA 2 virtually at right angle to and in line with bm­cu, wing membrane with a distinctly infuscated tip and a small, circular discal macula extending from just anterior to R 4+5 to M; tegula, basicosta and stem vein brown, similar to adjacent wing base, stem vein dorsally microsetulose at base; wing base with 3 long costagial setae, inner one very long and inclinate.
Female abdomen: Paired spermathecae elongate egg­shaped, 1.9× as long as wide, with a constriction in basal ⅓, surface otherwise smooth, spermathecal duct densely covered with knob­like processes beyond the division of the common duct into 2 straight branches (Fig. 1). Single spermatheca on a much shorter and smaller duct, body densely covered with processes much like the paired spermathecal ducts.
Male abdomen: Pleuron with large dome­like differentiated area on segment 4 (occupying approximately ventral ¾ of pleuron 4); hypandrium with a very short anterior plate and strong posterodorsal arms connecting to phallic plate, dorsolateral margin of posterodorsal arm with a prominent lobe (Fig. 5). Basiphallus elongate and tapered posteriorly, extending well beyond base of distiphallus; postgonites equal, small and finely spinulose ventrally; distiphallus with tubular basal part bifurcating before transition into strongly dextrally recurved membranous distal part, apex with a finely spinulose glans (Fig. 6); ejaculatory apodeme slightly larger than epandrium; genital fork (sternite 5) with gap Y­shaped at base (Fig. 4), inner surfaces of arms densely spinose and with a right-angled bend in the middle.
Holotype ♂ and 3♀ paratypes: TANZANIA: Uluguru Mountains: “Tanganyika, Ulguru Mts, 1500–1800m ” (CNCI).
Comments: This species is closely related to A. melasma, from which it differs in spermathecal shape and sculpturing and in the pigmentation of the hind tarsus.
description: Published as part of Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A review of the Afrotropical genus Aristobatina Verbeke (Diptera: Micropezidae: Taeniapterinae), with descriptions of four new species from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, pp. 143 in African Invertebrates 55 (1) on pages 146-147, DOI: 10.5733/afin.055.0108, http://zenodo.org/record/7661736