Carnus orientalis Maa 1968
Creators: name: Chen, Hsuan-Pu
name: Chan, Fang-Tse
name: Shiao, Shiuh-Feng
name: Chiu, Ming-Chung
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Carnidae
Carnus
Carnus orientalis

description: Carnus orientalis Maa, 1968
Carnus orientalis Maa, 1968: 33; holotype, ♀; Type locality: Malaysia, Selangor, Rantau Panjang. Deposited at Bishop Museum, Hawaii, USA.
Materials
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceRemarks: collected on rescued individual of Otus lettia; recordedBy: Ming-Jung Chan; individualCount: 5; sex: 1 female, 4 males; lifeStage: adult; preparations: whole animal (ETOH), DNA extracted; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: GenBank: PP 192111, PP 192112, PP 192113, PP 192114, PP 199482, PP 199483, PP 199484, PP 199485, PP 188559, PP 188560; occurrenceID: 24F24E3A-C843-5F4E-BC68-01E02025B726; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0987F4A7-D043-4907-B518-0FD8E01BDDC1; namePublishedInID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub: 6BF9831E-2AE1-49C4-BDD2-523E7BAD9FF8; scientificName: Carnus orientalis Maa, 1968; originalNameUsage: Carnus orientalis Maa, 1968; namePublishedIn: Maa, Tsing-Chao. 1968. A new Carnus from Malaya (Diptera: Milichiidae). Pacific Insects 10 (1): 33-36.; higherClassification: Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Diptera; Carnidae; Carnus; Carnus orientalis; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Carnidae; genus: Carnus; specificEpithet: orientalis; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: T. C. Maa; vernacularName: 東方鳥蠅, ミナミトリチスイコバエ; nomenclaturalCode: ICZN; taxonomicStatus: accepted; Location: higherGeography: East Asia; Taiwan; Nantou; Xinyi Township; Ziqiang Village, Wusonglun; continent: Asia; islandGroup: Taiwan; island: Taiwan; country: Taiwan; countryCode: TW; stateProvince: Nantou; municipality: Xinyi Township; locality: Ziqiang Village, Wusonglun; decimalLatitude: 23.677539; decimalLongitude: 120.847545; Identification: identifiedBy: Shih-Tsai Yang, Hsuan-Pu Chen; dateIdentified: 2023; identificationReferences: Iwasa et al. 2014; Event: eventDate: 2023 / 05 / 03; year: 2023; month: 5; day: 3; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionCode: National Museum of Natural Science (NMNS), Taichung, Taiwan; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen
Description
The description was based on five Taiwanese specimens (four males and one female) (Figs 1, 2, 3).
Male. Head polished and smooth, 1.88–2.27 (2.05 ± 0.16) × as wide as long; eye (Fig. 2 A and C) suboval, 0.38–0.57 (0.49 ± 0.08) × as dorsal wide as height, 0.71–0.95 (0.85 ± 0.11) × as lateral wide as height; interocular width 0.55–0.63 (0.57 ± 0.04) × as wide as head width (Fig. 2 A); minimum height of gena 0.29–0.33 (0.31 ± 0.02) × eye height; postgenal width 0.21–0.24 (0.23 ± 0.01) × eye height, 0.22–0.33 (0.27 ± 0.05) × of lateral eye width (Fig. 2 C); antenna with arista long and pubescent (Fig. 2 B); palpus clavate (Fig. 2 C); proboscis with labial theca longer than wide, bulbous and strongly sclerotised, labellum small with single ring of long setae at base (Fig. 2 C); Chaetotaxy (Fig. 2) with interfrontal setae two, medioclinate; frontal setae two, medioclinate; orbital setae two, lateroclinate; ocellar setae two, anteroclinate; postocellar seta absent; supra-antennal seta one, anteroclinate; medial vertical seta one, medioclinate; lateral vertical seta one, postero-lateroclinate; paravertical seta one, medioclinate; postvertical seta absent; oral vibrissa one, with two setae between antenna and oral vibrissa; genal seta three.
Thorax (Fig. 1 A and B) polished and coriaceous; mesoscutum 1.00–1.08 (1.03 ± 0.04) × as wide as long; scutellum wide and short; wing shaded with remnants of wing base; haltere clavate; Chaetotaxy with postpronotal seta one; presutural seta one; notopleural setae two; postsutral supra-alar seta one; postalar seta one; dorsocentral seta one; prescutellar seta one; scutellar setae two, with one basal and one apical seta. Fore coxa enlarged, mid- and hind coxa small; Legs with fore and hind femora enlarged, fore femora with two or three posteroventral setae (Fig. 1 A).
Abdomen (Fig. 1 A and B) with intersegmental membrane setose, setae strong and growing from strongly sclerotised spots; tergites I – V rectangular, covered with one row of strong and long seta apically, width-length ratio of tergites I – IV 5.50–7.71 (6.41 ± 1.08), 3.64–4.38 (3.94 ± 0.33), 3.43–4.00 (3.82 ± 0.26), 2.39–2.73 (2.51 ± 0.16); sternite present, square or rectangular.
Genitalia with epandrium (Fig. 3 A and B) strongly sclerotised and rounded, with one long and robust seta dorsally, one dorso-laterally, one posteriorly and three shorter strong setae around the cerci; cercus (Fig. 3 B) weakly sclerotised and convex posteriorly, with short setae dorsally; surstylus (Fig. 3 B) broad trapezoidal, 1.78–2.00 (1.94 ± 0.11) × as long as wide, inner-curved with short setae and several small tooth-like projections apically; decasturnum (Fig. 3 B) laterally elongated plate with ventral projection medially, 2.44–2.75 (2.58 ± 0.14) × as wide as long, 0.89–1.00 (0.94 ± 0.06) × as long as maximum width of surstylus; strongly sclerotised and rounded ventrally; hypandrium (Fig. 3 C and D) U-shape, opened and anteriorly protruded dorsally and connected ventrally; aedeagus (Fig. 3 A) short, bulbus and membranous; aedeagal apodeme (Fig. 3 A and C) clavate apically; paraphysis (Fig. 3 A and C) long and slender.
Colouration (Fig. 1 A and B) blackish-brown, except the eyes reddish-brown; basal and apical part of tibia, tarsus, abdominal intersegmental membrane yellowish-white.
Female. Similar to males, except abdomen physogastric (Fig. 1 C and D), tergites narrow (Fig. 1 D) and sternites I – V reduced. Measurements with head 1.82 × as wide as long, eye 0.86 × as lateral wide as high, 0.50 × as dorsal wide as high; minimum height of gena 0.27 × of eye height; interocular width 0.55 × as head width; postgena 0.18 as high as eye, 0.21 × lateral eye width; mesoscutum 1.16 × as wide as length; tergites I – IV with wide-length ratios 8.71, 4.08, 3.77, 2.06; ovipositor (Fig. 1 D) long, weakly sclerotszed. Ovipositor (Fig. 1 C and D) yellowish-white.
Diagnosis
Combining the re-description in the current study and diagnoses proposed by Grimaldi (1997) and Iwasa et al. (2014), this species can be distinguished from other congeners by the combination of the following characters: Gena narrow, with its minimum height 0.25–0.33 of eye height; female abdominal tergites large (Fig. 1 D vs. Grimaldi 1997: 14); surstylus broad trapezoidal, with several small tooth-like projections apically; paraphysis slender; decasternum with height 0.7–1.0 of maximum surstylus width.
Distribution
Malaysia (Maa 1968), Japan (Ryukyu Islands) (Iwasa et al. 2014), and Taiwan (this study).
Biology
Carnus orientalis is considered a blood-sucking ectoparasite of owls (Strigidae: Ketupa ketupu, Otus elegans and Otus lettia) (Maa 1968, Iwasa et al. 2014, this study). A video (https://youtu.be/7KmhmYKcGmg) of the living indivuduals collected in this study shows host blood in the flies' guts, providing evidence of the blood-sucking nature of this species. The dealated adults can be found in the owl nests or on their fledging. The congeners C. hemapterus and C. occidentalis have wider host range spanning several bird families and different hosts can be recorded even within close localities (Grimaldi 1997). Therefore, the possibility that C. orientalis has a broader host range beyond owls cannot be omitted.
Taxon discussion
The re-description, based on Taiwanese specimens, mostly fits the re-description of Iwasa et al. (2014). Still, morphological variations were found between these re-descriptions, including: (1) minimum height of gena 0.27–0.33 of eye height in Taiwanese specimens, but 0.25–0.29 in Iwasa et al. (2014); (2) interfrontal setae two in Taiwanese specimens, but one in Iwasa et al. (2014). The interfrontal seta observed in the present study is short and somehow inconspicuous. According to the illustration of Iwasa et al. (2014) (page 485, fig. 1), they could misinterpret the suprantennal seta as the interfrontal seta.
description: Published as part of Chen, Hsuan-Pu, Chan, Fang-Tse, Shiao, Shiuh-Feng & Chiu, Ming-Chung, 2024, New record of Carnidae (Diptera) from Taiwan and potential challenges in DNA barcode amplification due to pseudogene, pp. e 137532 in Biodiversity Data Journal 12 on page e137532, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.12.e137532