Mesembrinella townsendi Guimaraes 1977
Creators: name: Whitworth, Terry L.
name: Yusseff-Vanegas, Sohath
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Calliphoridae
Mesembrinella
Mesembrinella townsendi

description: Mesembrinella townsendi Guimarães, 1977
(Figs 93–94, 183–184, 234, 277, 321, 365, 406, 450, 483, 488, 495)
Mesembrinella townsendi Guimar „es, 1977: 31. Holotype male (NHMUK), examined. Type locality: Fundo Chela, Peru. Mesembrinella townsendi: Peris & Mariluis (1984: 260); Kosmann et al. (2013: 78); Wolff (2013: 121); Wolff & Kosmann (2016: 870); Marinho et al. (2017; tab. 1) Cerretti et al. (2017: tab 2).
Diagnosis. A medium-sized fly averaging 11.4 mm (11–12/5) in length. Wing infuscated from where subcostal vein meets costa to where vein R 1 meets costa, and extending from costa to vein R 2+3 (Fig. 495); abdomen without pale tomentose pits; supravibrissal setae brown; subcostal sclerite with brown setae; abdomen shiny blue with streaky pale tomentum; wing with section IV 0.24 of section III; mid and hind tibiae and tarsi brown. Epandrium, cerci and surstyli as in Figs 93–94. Female terminalia as in Fig. 321.
Redescription. Male. Head. Frons 0.015 (0.01–0.02/5) of head width at narrowest. Fronto-orbital, parafacial, gena, and postgena orange with sparse pale tomentum; frontal setae ascending about 30% of distance to vertex; frontal vitta dark orange, obliterated at about 1/3 of length; gena with horizontal row of dark brown setae midway, from posterior margin to vibrissa, otherwise with scattered brown setae; postgena with orange setae and sparse pale tomentum; occiput dark brown with heavy dark gold tomentum and fine golden setae, median occipital sclerite shiny with unusual area of pale cuticle above and dark brown cuticle below; antenna entirely orange except apical half of arista brown; palpus typical; eye with median facets about 2x size of lateral facets; ocellar triangle small, anterior ocellus about 2x size of posterior ocelli; supravibrissal setae brown, ascending about 1/6 of distance to antennal base.
Thorax with four pale stripes (as in Fig. 493); pleura orange with pale tomentum; spiracles pale yellow; chaetotaxy: ac 2:2, dc 2:3, ia 1, ph 1, ppn 3x 3, kat 2:1, meral setae fine, tan, with short horizontal section, 1 pair converging ap, 1 weak sa, 1 weak lat, 1 stout bas, 1 pb, 1 disc; subscutellum weakly developed; spiracles of moderate size, pale yellow; legs: femora orange, tibiae and tarsi more or less dark brown. Wing infuscated from where subcostal vein meets costa to where vein R 1 meets costa and from costa to vein R 2+3 (Fig. 495); subcostal sclerite setose with dark brown setae (similar to Fig. 490); basicosta tan to dark brown, tegula orange; section IV 0.24 of section III; disc of upper calypter tan, rim dark with short dark setae; disc of lower calypter brown, rim pale with long pale setae.
Abdomen. T1+2 yellowish, T3 yellowish to shiny blue, T4–5 shiny blue with pale tomentum, T4 with row of stout marginal setae, T5 with posterior row of weak marginal setae; disc of T5 with dense, short, fine setae only. Terminalia in lateral view as in Fig. 93; in posterior view as in Fig. 94; phallus in lateral view as in Fig. 183; in dorsal view, hypophallic lobes of unusual shape with shallow, coarse serrations along edge (Fig. 184); T6, STS7+8, pre- and postgonite, ejaculatory sclerite, ST6 and hypandrium as in Fig. 234; ST1–5 as in Fig. 277.
Female. Similar to male except frons 0.282 (0.26–0.29/5) of head width at narrowest. T6 of OV shape; T7 broad, divided midway; T8 as separate sclerites (Fig. 321); ST6–8 and hypoproct as in Fig. 365; ST7 distinctive, narrowed in anterior third and expanded in posterior 2/3; spermathecae filiform (Fig. 406); ST1–5 as in Fig. 450.
Type material examined. HOLOTYPE ♂ (Peru; NHMUK; Fig. 483), labeled: PERU / Fundo Chela / 4.vi.1964 / 1100m. J. Schunke; B.M. 1964-686; Holo- / type [round label with red border]; Mesembrinella / townsendi G. / J. H. Guimar „es det.
PARATYPE: Peru. 1 ♂*, over Monzon River, 19.vi. 1964, 860 m, J. Schunke (NHMUK).
Additional material examined. Bolivia, La Paz. 1 ♀, Mapiri Arroyo Tuhiri, 15.28°S 68.25°W, 10.iv.2001, B. Brown, G. Kung (LACM). Peru, Cusco. 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀ *, 13 ♀♀, Pilocapata, Villa Carmen, 12°53ʹS 71°24ʹW, v.2014, multilure, 1 ♀ ♦ (TLW450), M. Choque (FSCA); 2 ♀♀ ♦ (TLW449 – TLW451), Villa Carmen Biol. Sta., 12°54ʹ08ʺS 71°24ʺ38ʺW, i–iii.2013, E. Rodriguez (FSCA); 2 ♂♂*, 3 ♂♂♦ (TLW316 – TLW318), 1 ♂, 1 ♀ *, 2 ♀♀ ♦ (TLW319 – TLW320), 2 ♀♀, Estación Biológica, Villa Carmen 12°54ʹ08ʺS 71°24ʺ38ʺW, 718 m, 16–26.xi.2012, J.K. Alvarez (USNM); 2 ♂♂, same data except Trail 8, 700 m (FSCA); 1 ♂, same data except Trail 8 mark 8-1654, 12°54ʹ09ʺS 71°24ʹ321ʺW, 707 m, 27.xi.2012 – 20.i.2013, VC-ML-14, A.L. Norrbom, E. Rodriguez, G.J. Steck, B.D. Sutton (FSCA); 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, same data except 721 m, 20–26.i.2013, A.L. Norrbom, E. Rodriguez, G.J. Steck, B.D. Sutton (USNM). Huanuco. 1 ♂*, Monson River [over the river], 860 m, 19.vi.1964, J. Schuke (NHMUK); 1 ♀, vic. Tingo Maria, 1–6.vi.1999, W. Hanson, S. Keller (LACM). Junin. 2 ♂♂*, 4 ♀♀, 16 km W San Ramón, 1433 m, 21.vi.1980, M. Szyska (BG). San Martin. 1 ♀, Moyabamba, Vic. Ecológico “Rumipataʺ, 06°04ʹ32.0ʺS 76°58ʹ07.5ʺW, 970 m, 13–18.x.2012, UV light, J.E. Eger (FSCA); 1 ♀, 1–13 km from Tarapoto Urimaguas Rd., 650–800 m, 10.xii.1991, R. MacDonald (MEM).
Distribution. Bolivia, Peru. Marinho et al. (2017) also listed it from Brazil and Colombia.
Remarks. Eight specimens were barcoded and one external sequence from Colombia was included in the analysis. Two independent clusters were recovered. The first one includes five specimens (TLW 316–320) of the typical M. townsendi from Peru and the Colombian sequence (KR820723). The second cluster includes the other three specimens (TLW 449–451), from a group of eight females also from Peru (Fig. 488). These females keyed to M. townsendi but showed some variation, including a consistently smaller size and the lack of tomentum on T4–5, whereas the specimens in the first cluster all had streaky tomentum on T4–5. The genetic distance between the two clusters is 5%, which suggests they may belong to different species. A female from the second group was dissected and the terminalia and sternites were very similar to those of confirmed M. townsendi specimens. If males matching these females are found, they should be studied in detail to confirm whether they belong to a separate species; however, for now we consider them as M. townsendi.
description: Published as part of Whitworth, Terry L. & Yusseff-Vanegas, Sohath, 2019, A revision of the genera and species of the Neotropical family Mesembrinellidae (Diptera: Oestroidea), pp. 1-146 in Zootaxa 4659 (1) on pages 135-136, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4659.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3377239