Hemerodromia conspecta Plant, 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Plant, Adrian R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Empididae
Hemerodromia
Hemerodromia conspecta

description: Hemerodromia conspecta sp. nov.
(Figs 23–25, 79)
Diagnosis. A blackish species with head and thorax rather quadrate, 4–5 pairs of distinct vertical setae and front tibia only slightly curved. The male terminalia are distinctively small with a broad cercus and small hypandrium and the epandrial lobes bear a distinct sharp spine apically. The female terminalia are elongate and developed as an ovipositor.
Description. Male: Body length 2.8 mm; wing length 1.8 mm. Head. Rather short, only slightly longer than deep, rather quadrate, upper occiput vertical in lateral view making distinct but smooth angle with vertex (not gradually curving). Black, dusted greyish. Antenna and mouthparts pale whitish yellow. One pair reclinate ocl; 4–5 pairs small distinct vtl, about as strong as ocl, positioned in linear series parallel with upper eye margin, clearly distinguishable from smaller minute hairs on vertex and from postocular setulae. Antenna with postpedicel ~1.5– 1.8X long as wide, stylus very short only 0.2X length of postpedicel; scape with distinct fine dorsal seta. Thorax. Distinctly quadrate anteriorly; anterior margin of scutum vertical in lateral view making distinct but smooth right angle with disc (not gradually curving). Ground colour blackish, reddish black or reddish brown, sometimes more distinctly reddish on pleura, dusted greyish (all specimens examined appear to be somewhat teneral and variable in colour). All setae yellowish; minute apart from one small npl anterior of which are a few very fine hairs; scutellum with a few fine hairs on disc. Legs. Ground colour yellowish white including apical tarsomeres. C1 rather short, about as long as distance between C1 and C2; all coxae with only minute setulae but with a few longer hairs dorsally and especially near tip of C1. F1 ~1.0–1.1X long as C1, moderately inflated ~ 5X long as wide, not constricted on proximal 0.3; femoral formula ~ 6– 7 /18–21/17–21/6–8; denticles black, rows converging apically; spines yellow, pv slightly longer than av series, both longest proximally. T1 ~ 0.7X long as F1, sublinear, ventral face only slightly concave; with one row of ~16–20 sharply pointed spinose setae ventrally; ventroapical spur weakly developed; a distinct ventroapical erect black spinose seta present. Mid and hind legs slender with only small setulae. Wing. Membrane slightly to distinctly darkened with greyish microtrichia, paler along posterior margin and hyaline near extreme base. Veins greyish but paler near base and pale yellowish on costa basal to junction with R2+3. Marginal setulae pale grey. R2+3 linear but tip rather abruptly curved anteriorly to join C ~ 0.7– 0.8X distance between end of R1 and R4; length of C between ends of R2+3 and R4 ~1.0–1.1X long as R4. R4 almost linear, only slightly S-shaped, angle with R5 at extreme base ~ 65–70°; R5 ~1.7X long as R4; R4+5 fork distal to M1+2 fork by ~ 2X length of R4; R5 linear, M1 slightly curved, almost parallel with R5 distally; cell bm+dm short, ending near level of R1. Halter greyish white. Abdomen. Ground colour blackish or brownish, somewhat paler on vent; all setulae inconspicuous, very short and brownish dorsally, slightly longer and pale ventrally. Terminalia. Black with dark setae. Small and compact. Cercus short and broad (Figs 23, 24), extending to tip of epandrium; broadly subtriangular in dorsal view (Fig. 24) with inner margin concave; mostly with short hairs but a few longer setae apically and dorsally; in ventral view epandrial lobes with one large sharply pointed apical spine directed internally and a shorter blunter process near to it (Fig. 25). Hypandrium small and short, rather strongly arched ventrally, distinctly divided ventrally near base. Female: similar to male but wing with extreme base of Cu thickened and distinctly blackish. Abdomen with segments 7 and 8 elongate, ovipositor-like.
Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂, THAILAND: Loei Province, Wong Huy [Nong Hin], Suan Hom w/f, 579 m, 17.0415°N, 101.757°E, 22.xi.2013, netted, A.R. Plant (QSBG). PARATYPES: 56♂, 2♀, same data as holotype 22.xi.2013, 29.xi.2013; 21♂, Nong Hin, Suan Sawan, Peangdin Waterfall, tufa stream, 627 m, netted, A.R. Plant; 1♂, Phu Reua NP, Pla Ba w/f, rock shelf above waterfall, 649 m, 17.3918°N, 101.370°E, netted, A.R. Plant (QSBG & NMWC).
Additional material. 7♂, Loei Province, Wong Huy [Nong Hin], Suan Hom w/f, 579 m, 17.0415°N, 101.757°E, 22.xi.2013, netted, A.R. Plant (QSBG & NMWC); these specimens are teneral.
Etymology. From the Latin conspecta (conspicuous) in reference to the unusually well developed vertical setae. It is used as a noun in apposition.
Remarks. Hemerodromia conspecta sp. nov. should readily be recognised by its distinctly quadrate thorax and head (but not as strongly quadrate as in H. anomala sp. nov. which characteristically has R2+3 terminating in R4 rather than in C as in all other described species of Hemerodromia) H. conspecta sp. nov. is also distinctive in having 4–5 pairs of distinct vertical setae. The male terminalia are distinctively small and compact. Hemerodromia conspecta sp. nov. has been found around streams in lowland (579–649 m) forest in Loei Province, north-eastern Thailand (Fig. 79) during November. All but one of the 88 specimens examined were taken in close proximity to basic and mineral rich tufa streams. (Suan Hom, conductivity 414 µS/cm2, pH 8.08; Suan Sawan conductivity 418 µS/cm2, pH 7.84). The single specimen from Pla Ba was captured from a basic (pH 7.49) but less mineralised stream (conductivity 90 µS/cm2) lacking in tufa formations.
description: Published as part of Plant, Adrian R., 2015, Diversity of Hemerodromia Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Empididae) in Thailand, the tip of a tropical iceberg?, pp. 1-56 in Zootaxa 4039 (1) on pages 18-20, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4039.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/289932