Neocephalosphaera iguaquensis Ramos-Pastrana & Marques & Rafael 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ramos-Pastrana, Yardany
name: Marques, Dayse W. A.
name: Rafael, José Albertino
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Pipunculidae
Neocephalosphaera
Neocephalosphaera iguaquensis

description: Neocephalosphaera iguaquensis sp. nov.
Figs 43–58, 130
Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂: COLOMBIA, Boyacá, SFF[Santuario de Fauna y Flora] Iguaque, El Nispero, 0538’N / 7331’W, 2730 m [eters], 3–18.ii.2002, P. Reina Leg, “M3068 (1♂, IAvH) (photographed specimen). PARATYPES idem, La Planada, 0525’12’’N / 7327’24’’W, 2850 m [eters], 02–19.apr[iv].2001, “M32 (1♂, LEUA); 13–28.x.2001, “M2476 (1♀, IAvH) (photographed specimen); idem, 28.x.–14.xi.2001, “M2483 (1♀, LEUA); idem, 12.x. [2000]–19.i.2001, “M3066 (1♀, IAvH). Holotype with left wing mounted in Canada balsam on a microslide with balsam, terminalia, and antenna placed in a microvial with glycerin, both pinned along the specimen.
Diagnosis. Coxae and trochanters brown, gray pruinose; femora light brown; tibiae yellow, with posterior erect setae medially. Tergites 2–5 velvety black anteriorly with brown pruinose posteriorly. Surstyli subsymmetrical, completely setose; both surstyli with carinas on inner edges, right overlapping left.Apex of phallic guide stout, long, slightly straight dorsally; tip slightly downward-directed, with a small translucent lobe dorsally and a row of fine setae ventrally. Phallus trifid, with ejaculatory ducts spiralized.
Description. MALE. (holotype). Body length 6.6 mm. Head (Figs 43–44). Eyes contiguous for 27 facets. F, EM, V (mm) = 0.5, 0.6, 0.3. Frons yellow pruinose. Postcranium brown, gray pruinose laterally and ventrally, graybrown pruinose dorsally. Antenna (Fig. 45) with scape and pedicel brown; pedicel with three setae dorsally and four long setae ventrally; postpedicel light brown, with acuminate apex. LPP/WPP = 3.4. Thorax (Figs 43–44, 46). Postpronotal lobe brown, with apex light brown. Scutum brown, brown pruinose. Notopleuron concolor with the scutum, yellow pruinose. Scutellum concolor with scutum and notopleuron, yellow pruinose, with eight inconspicuous black setae along posterior margin. Mesopleuron and mediotergite light brown, gray pruinose. Wing (Fig. 47). Length 8.1 mm. LW/MWW = 3.3. LTC/LFC = 1.1. Membrane faintly brown infuscated, proximal third lighter; third section costal shorter than the length of fourth; vein r-m located after the basal third of the upper section of the cell dm; vein M 2 long; dm-m/M 2 = 2.4; section between cell dm and vein M 2 greater than vein dm-m; vein dm-m slightly curved. Halter stem beige, knob yellow. Legs (Fig. 43). Coxae and trochanters dark brown, gray pruinose; femora light brown, gray pruinose posteriorly; hind femur with a row of long and fine yellow setae posterolaterally, eight distals black and strong; tibiae yellow, with posterior erect setae medially; tarsomeres 1–4 yellow; 5 light brown, with apex brown; pulvilli light brown. Abdomen (Figs 43–44, 48). Ground color dark, tergite 1 sparsely gray-brown pruinose, with eight stout black setae laterally; tergites 2–5 velvety black anteriorly with brown pruinosity posteriorly; tergites 1–5 gray pruinose laterally. Tergites and sternites 6 and 7 as in Fig. 49. Syntergosternite 8 dark brown, brown pruinose, larger than tergite 5, with large crestlike membranous area dividing syntergosternite 8 and reaching epandrium (Figs 48, 50). Terminalia (Figs 49–55). Epandrium and surstyli yellow (Figs 50–52). Surstyli (Figs 50–53) subsymmetrical, shorter than the length of epandrium, completely setose; both surstyli with carinas on inner edges, right over left; right surstylus slightly shorter and thinner than left, both surstyli slightly straight and forward directed when seen in lateral view (Figs 52–53). Apex of phallic guide stout, long, with distinct submedian truncated lobe ventrally, slightly straight dorsally, tip slightly downward directed with a small translucent lobe dorsally, and a row of fine setae ventrally (Fig. 54). Ejaculatory apodeme somewhat nail-shaped (Fig. 55). Phallus trifid, with ejaculatory ducts spiralized, only in distal 3/4 (Fig. 54).
FEMALE. (Figs 56–58). Similar to male, differing in the following aspects. Body length 4.4 mm. Eyes dichoptic. Wing length 6.1 mm. LW/MWW = 3.7. LTC/LFC = 0.6. Frontal ommatidia larger than adjacent. Ovipositor OL: 0.88 mm, PL: 0.51 mm, B: 0.34 mm; base brown, gray pruinose; piercer yellow, except base brown, tip straight (Figs 57–58).
Geographical distribution. Colombia (Boyacá) (Fig. 130).
Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the type locality, Santuario de Fauna y Flora Iguaque.
Habitat. The specimens were collected with Malaise traps at ground level. The vegetation of the collection site is composed of cloud Andean forests of the Oriental Cordillera of the Northeast region of Colombia.
Taxonomic notes. Neoephalosphaera iguaquensis sp. nov. runs to N. santiagonensis Rafael, 1992 in the couplet 11 of the key presented by Souza & Ale-Rocha (2009). It differs from N. santiagonensis by having the antenna with scape and pedicel brown, postpedicel light brown (Fig. 45) (versus antenna dak brown to black, in N. santiagonensis); scutellum brown, yellow pruinose (Figs 44, 46) (versus scutellum black, brown pruinose); all coxae dark brown (Fig. 43) (versus all coxae black); both surstyli with carinas on inner edges and tips downward directed (Fig. 51) [versus both surstyli without carinas on inner edges and tips inward directed, figure 2.P, presented by Souza & Ale-Rocha (2009)]; apex of phallic guide long, with distinct submedian truncated lobe ventrally, slightly straight dorsally, tip slightly downward directed with a small translucent lobe dorsally (Fig. 54) [versus apex of phallic guide short, with slightly straight margins ventrally and dorsally, figure 3.P, presented by Souza & AleRocha (2009)]. Based on the male specimen and due to the shape of the surstyli and phallus (except in N. carinae sp. nov.), N. iguaquensis sp. nov. is similar in appearance to N. jamaicensis Johnson, 1919 [see figures 2.I, 3.I, presented by Souza & Ale-Rocha (2009)], N. carinae sp. nov. (Figs 21–24), N. muisca sp. nov. (Figs 66–70) and N. spiralis sp. nov. (Figs 105–109). It differs from N. jamaicensis by having the antenna with postpedicel long, with acuminate apex (Fig. 45) [versus antenna with postpedicel short, with acuminated apex in N. jamaicensis, figure 42.6, presented by Rafael (1992)]; apex of phallic with distinct submedian truncated lobe ventrally, slightly straight dorsally, tip slightly downward directed with a small translucent lobe dorsally (Fig. 54) [versus apex of phallic guide with straight margins dorsally and ventrally and straight tip, figure 3.I, presented by Souza & Ale-Rocha (2009)]. It differs from N. carinae sp. nov. by having the apex of phallic with distinct submedian truncated lobe ventrally, slightly straight dorsally, tip slightly downward directed with a small translucent lobe dorsally (Fig. 54) [versus apex of phallic guide with rigid and distinct submedian lobe dorsally and hooked tip in N. carinae sp. nov. (Fig. 25)]; phallus trifid, with ejaculatory ducts spiralized, only in distal 3/4 (Fig. 54) [versus phallus with ejaculatory ducts completely spiralized (Fig. 25)]; ejaculatory apodeme somewhat nail-shaped (Fig. 55) [versus ejaculatory apodeme funnel-shaped (Fig. 26)]. It differs from N. muisca sp. nov. by having the apex of phallic with distinct submedian truncated lobe ventrally, slightly straight dorsally, tip slightly downward directed with a small translucent lobe dorsally (Fig. 54) [versus apex of phallic guide with rigid, distinct submedian lobe dorsally, slightly upward directed in N. muisca sp. nov. (Fig. 70)]; ejaculatory apodeme somewhat nail-shaped (Fig. 55) [versus ejaculatory apodeme funnel-shaped (Fig. 71)]. It differs from N. spiralis sp. nov. by having the section between cell dm and vein M 2 greater than vein dm-m (Fig. 47) [versus section between cell dm and vein M 2 equal than vein dm-m in N. spiralis sp. nov. (Fig. 102)]; phallus trifid, with ejaculatory ducts spiralized, only in distal 3/4 (Fig. 54) [versus phallus trifid, with ejaculatory ducts completely spiralized (Fig. 109)]; ejaculatory apodeme somewhat nail-shaped (Fig. 55) [versus ejaculatory apodeme somewhat funnel-shaped narrowed (Fig. 110)].
description: Published as part of Ramos-Pastrana, Yardany, Marques, Dayse W. A. & Rafael, José Albertino, 2022, Cephalosphaera Enderlein and Neocephalosphaera De Meyer (Diptera: Pipunculidae) of Colombia, with description of nine new species and an updated key to their Neotropical species, pp. 301-333 in Zootaxa 5178 (4) on pages 310-312, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5178.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7031688