Tomosvaryella powerae Foldvari, Skevington & Motamedinia 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Motamedinia, Behnam
name: Földvari, Mihaly
name: Skevington, Jeffrey H.
name: Kelso, Scott
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Pipunculidae
Tomosvaryella
Tomosvaryella powerae

description: Tomosvaryella powerae Földvari, Skevington & Motamedinia sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 863EDC65-39B1-4BEE-8193-1411D4076D4F
Figs 79A–E, 134, 148E, 154F
Diagnosis: This species can be recognized by the hind trochanter having a square keel and being covered with short bristles along the edge (Fig. 148E); elongated surstyli in dorsal view (Fig. 79A); gonopods elongated towards surstyli in ventral view (Fig. 79B); long subepandrial sclerite with a long protrusion (Fig. 79B); phallic guide with 6–7 dorsolateral spines (Fig. 79E).
Description: MALE: Body length: 2.5 mm. Head. Flagellum acuminate; yellow-brown. Face silvery pollinose. Frons, upper part shining black; lower part distinctly silver pollinose; eyes touching for distance 2 x length of ocellar triangle. Occiput silvery pollinose, less so on upper 1/3. Thorax. Postpronotum pale, with 1–2 pale bristles. Mesonotum (viewed obliquely from front) brownish pollinose, anterior part more grey, grayish also from the side. Scutellum brownish pollinose and with 5–7 bristles along the distal edge. Dorsocentral bristles weakly developed, dark, somewhat longer along frontal edge, numerous dark bristles around postpronotum. Halter, knob pale with brownish tinge, stem brown. Legs. Mid coxa with two long, dark bristles. Trochanters pale brown and femora dark brown, shining ventrally, silvery pollinose posteriorly except shiny hind femur; knees and basal 1/6 of tibiae yellow (tibiae otherwise brown), tarsal segments yellow, last segment darker. Hind trochanter with a distinct, square keel (like a “top hat”) and with short bristles along the edge, longest basally (Fig. 148E); one ventrobasal spine present on fore and absent on mid femur. Ventroapical row of spines on fore femur absent; 6–8 small, black spines on mid femur; hind femur without ventroapical spines, except 8–10 equally spaced bristles posteroventrally on distal half, longest up to ½ the width of hind tibia at distal end. Subapical (distal) spines on first four tibiae present. Hind tibia bent in posterior view. Hind tarsomeres flattened (especially metatarsus), metatarsus almost as long as 2–3 combined. Pulvilli shorter than last tarsal segment. Wing. Length: 3.0 mm. Upper side of basal costal cell with one long dark bristle. Fourth costal section 3 times as long as third costal section. Cross-vein r-m slightly at middle of discal cell. 2–3 distinct brown setulae on tegula. Abdomen. Dissected. Tergite 1 silvery grey, Lateral bristles on first tergite present, 4–5 dark bristles up to as long as hind femur’s width at base. Postabdomen in dorsal view: Dissected. Genitalia. Genital capsule in dorsal view: epandrium longer than wide (MLE:MWE = 1.5). Surstyli elongated, right surstylus smaller than left one, right one with a small protrusion at inner margin before apex (Fig. 79A). Genital capsule in ventral view: gonopods unequal in height, left slightly longer than right one, elongated towards surstyli, subepandrial sclerite long, rectangular-shaped, with a long protrusion, extended from its base to middle (Fig. 79B). Genital capsule in lateral view: right surstylus rather straight, left surstylus curved towards sternite, phallic guide with 6–7 dorso-dorsolateral spines (one is longer) (Fig. 79C–E).
FEMALE: Body length: 2.5 mm. As male except for the following characters. Frons, eyes separated, as wide as 1.8–2 times the width at antennae; completely silver-grey pollinose until up to 1/3 of the lower frons, shiny black in front of ocellar triangle, gradual change in transition zone; frons depressed along upper 2/3 with a groove in the median line. Enlarged ommatidia silvery shining. Pulvilli and claws about 1–1.5 times as long as last tarsal segment, smaller on metatarsi. Female abdomen with silver spots on sides of tergites 2–6. Ovipositor. Straight in ventral view, straight and extra-long in lateral view, reaching distal base of 1 st segment; base brownish pollinose with occasional bristles. LP:LB = 3.3. LDP:LPP = 2.5. (Fig. 154F).
Etymology: This species in named after Narelle Power. Narelle and her team collected the holotype and in her survey work on Bribie Island and Mount Glorious she collected a significant number of pipunculids that we have used in numerous revisions. She has collected 10 of the Tomosvaryella species used in this project (Supplementary file 2).
Examined material: HOLOTYPE: AUSTRALIA: Queensland: Bribie Island, QDPI Fisheries Site, 27°3’S, 153°11’E, 5–12.IX.1997, Heathland- Acacia regrowth, S. Winterton, N. Power & D. White, Malaise trap, JSS8428 (1♂, QM); PARATYPES: AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory: Namatijira Drive, 20 km W Hugh River Crossing, 23°49’S, 133°11’E, 14–15.III. 2002, 760m, C.J. Burwell, JSS13934 (1♀, QM); 30 km NW by W of Alice Springs, 23°42’S, 133°53’E, 7.X.1978, D.H. Colless, JSS9240, JSS9246 (2♂, ANIC); 32 km WNW of Alice Springs, 23°42’S, 133°53’E, 8.X.1978, D.H. Colless, Malaise trap, JSS9243–5 (3♂, ANIC); 53 km E by N of Alice Springs, 23°42’S, 133°53’E, 6.X.1978, D.H. Colless, Malaise trap, JSS9252 (1♂, ANIC); Roe Creek, 12 km SW by W Alice Springs, 23°42’S, 133°53’E, 10.X.1978, D.H. Colless, Malaise trap, JSS9229 (1♂, CNC); Queensland: Charleville, 26°24’S, 146°14’E, 15.II.1970, A.L. Dyce, car net, ex. spirit via ethyl acetate, JSS8620 (1♂, ANIC); Australian Capital Territory: Paddy’s River, 35°27’S, 148°59’E, 18.III.1966, R. Pilfrey, JSS9707 (1♂, ANIC).
Distribution: Australia (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, Queensland) (Fig. 134).
Notes: The Australian Capital Territory specimen is disjunct, so it was checked again. It has the same morphological and terminalia characters as the holotype other than right surstylus in lateral view, which is narrower in the middle. This is typical variation found in other Tomosvaryella species, so it has been included in the type series. Intraspecific genetic distance is 0.3%. This species is genetically similar to T. mathiesoni sp. nov. (2.3–2.9% pairwise divergence) (Supplementary file 3).
description: Published as part of Motamedinia, Behnam, Földvari, Mihaly, Skevington, Jeffrey H. & Kelso, Scott, 2023, Revision of Australian Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae) with description of 100 new species, pp. 1-271 in Zootaxa 5599 (1) on pages 175-177, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5599.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14970961