Aptilotella germana Luk & Marshall 2014, sp. n.
Creators: name: Luk, Stephen P. L.
name: Marshall, Stephen A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sphaeroceridae
Aptilotella
Aptilotella germana

description: Aptilotella germana Luk & Marshall, sp. n.
Figures 9–11, and 75–85
Description. Habitus as in Figures 9 and 10. Body length 1.0 mm. Head ground color yellow. Frons finely rugose; pale areas silvery-blue; brown medial stripes each about one-fourth the width of frons, diffuse along the anterior margin; brown orbital stripes each half the width of medial stripe; ocular emargination with small pale spot. Ocellar tubercle scarcely raised; ocelli present; ocellar bristle two-fifths the length of frons. Orbital bristle present; orbital setulae minute, in five pairs. Interfrontal setae in two pairs. Lunule polished; face shining; facial excavation with a silvery-white band continuing onto anterior half of gena; gena weakly shining, setaceous. Antenna brown. Scutum and scutellum dark reddish-brown, shining. Scutum creased along posterolateral margin; uniformly setose. Scutellum bare; flat, 2.4 times wider than long, 0.6 times the width of scutum. Apical scutellar bristles 1.4 times as long as basal. Pleuron dark reddish-brown; with two pale pruinose stripes, the first on upper half of the anepisternum and anepimeron, the second fainter, at margin with katepisternum. Legs yellow ochre; mid and hind coxae brown; mid tibia with two anterodorsal bristles, in male with row of five stout setae in ventrodistal third. Wing pad (Fig. 9) small, dark brown. Abdomen black, shining; tergites each with two rows of setae, three rows on syntergite; sternites finely microtrichose. Epandrium and synsternite 6+7 dark reddish-brown; cercus and surstylus yellow-orange.
Male terminalia. Sternite 5 (Figs. 11, 78) completely divided, the inner margins concave posteriorly and flanked by setae. Synsternite 6+7 as in Figure 77. Cercus (Figs. 11, 75, 76) compressed, 3.5 times as long as basal width; base triangular, clothed in setulae; apex rounded, thickened; midlength with one long seta reaching apex, distally with several evenly spaced marginal setae and preapical sensory setae. Surstylus (Figs. 11, 75, 76) a halfcone; posteromedially weakly humped and bearing several long setae; apex round and flexed up. Postgonite (Figs. 11, 80) broad; descending arm short, slender and curved forward; articulatory process for pregonite undeveloped, truncate; lower portion before descending arm acutely angled; articulatory process for basiphallus knobbed with blunt anterior and posterior teeth. Hypandrium (Fig. 81) broad; medial rod apically spatulate, basal margin dilated; posteromedial fork thick and divergent; hypandrial arms slender, distal half weakly recurved; pregonite short, conical. Aedeagus as in Figure 79. Basiphallus stout, cylindrical; posterodorsally humped; articulatory process for postgonite truncate, curved upward. Ejaculatory apodeme pale, with the disc embedded midway. Ventrobasal sclerite divided. Lateral flanking sclerite broadly fused posteriorly, with a narrow descending tab; deeply indented at level of basiphallus; fused dorsally until distal third, where it darkens and tapers to a blunt apex. Paired arched sclerites very dark, originating at descending tab of lateral flanking sclerite; their trunks bearing a truncate lateral process, ascending between lateral flanking sclerites and descending ventrodistally, becoming depressed before merging into a prominent process; this process lunate, broadly rounded, basally formed into a sharp thorn. Paired dorsal sclerites slender, originating within dorsal division of lateral flanking sclerite, apically bearing a club of denticles. Lateral flanking sclerite giving rise to a pair of stubs beneath paired dorsal sclerites, capped in trifid denticles, which descend in a line next to lunate process, broadening and curving posteriorly to the level of its thorns.
Female terminalia. Epiproct (Figs. 82, 83) indistinct, triangular; microtrichose. Each half of tergite 8 (Figs. 82–84) convex; apex truncate; distal half setose. Cercus three times as long as wide; with one long apical seta and several preapical setae. Hypoproct (Figs. 83, 84) reduced to a pair of curved, convergent rods; apically microtrichose and with two pairs of setae. Spermathecae (Fig. 85) simple; sclerotized ducts very long, five times the diameter of a spermatheca.
Etymology. The species epithet is from the Latin germanus, “having the same parents,” since this species and its relatives are characterized by unmistakably homologous aedeagal morphology.
Type material. Holotype ♂, UNAM. MEXICO: Chiapas, Cerro El Calvario, near Tapalapa, 17°11’12”N, 93°7’21”W, 2200 m, 23.vii.2003, wet cloud forest litter, R.S. Anderson.
Paratypes. MEXICO: Chiapas, same label as holotype (6♂, 6♀, DEBU; 3♂, 4♀, UNAM); Cerro de Tapalapa, 17°11’16”N, 93°7’23”W, 2260 m, 27.v.2008, cloud forest, ex. sifted leaf litter, R.S. Anderson (♂, DEBU); Cerro de Tapalapa, 17°11’30”N, 93°7’4”W, 2240 m, 27.v.2008, oak-pine forest, ex. sifted leaf litter, R.S. Anderson (♀, DEBU).
Comments. Aptilotella germana and A. pyropanda are the only Aptilotella with a nearly or fully divided male sternite 5. The aedeagus is incredibly autapomorphic and character-rich, with paired arched sclerites of the distiphallus, broad postgonite and hypandrium, and squat basiphallus. They also differ from other squat-bodied Aptilotella in possessing a row of 5–6 stout peg-like setae in the ventrodistal third of the male mid tibia.
Aptilotella germana differs subtly from all other Aptilotella in possessing a minute, dark brown, thickened wing “bud.” Several undescribed species have somewhat larger and triangular wing “buds.”
description: Published as part of Luk, Stephen P. L. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A revision of the New World genus Aptilotella Duda (Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae), pp. 1-156 in Zootaxa 3761 (1) on pages 19-20, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3761.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4909057