Sciara insulana Vilkamaa, Hippa & Mohrig, 2015, sp. n.
Creators: name: Vilkamaa, Pekka
name: Hippa, Heikki
name: Mohrig, Werner
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sciaridae
Sciara
Sciara insulana

description: Sciara insulana sp. n.
Fig. 1 A–D
Material studied. Holotype male. NEW CALEDONIA, Pindaï, sclerophyllous forest, fogging, 30.VI.1992, Bonnet de Larbogne, Chazeau & Guilbert (in MNHN).
Description. Male. Head. Dark brown, antenna unicolorous, paler brown, maxillary palpus very pale brown. Eye bridge 5 facets wide. Setae of face and clypeus not detectable in the specimen. Maxillary palpus with 3 palpal segments; palpal segments long, palpal segment 1 and palpal segment 2 subequal, palpal segment 3 longest; palpal segment 1 with 6 setae, with a dorsal patch of sensilla; body of flagellomere 4 (Fig. 1 A) 3.2x as long as wide, without distinct apical margin, the neck shorter than broad, the longest setae shorter than the width of flagellomere. Thorax. Brown. Setae dark. Anterior pronotum with 3 setae. Prothoracal episternum with 5 setae. Scutum with short dorsocentrals, with some longer and shorter laterals, scutellum with some longer and short setae. Wing. Fumose brown. Length 3.4 mm. Width/length = 0.40. Veins distinct. R1/R = 1.0. c/w = 0.70. r-m shorter than bM. membrane non-setose. Fork of M and CuA setose, stM non-setose, r-m with 2 setae, bM non-setose. Legs. Pale brown, coxae and femora paler. Coxal setae dark. Foretibial organ with pale and fine vestiture forming a large patch (Fig. 1 B). Foretibial spur as long as the tibial width. Hind tibia without spinose setae. Claws without teeth. Abdomen. Setae dark, rather short. Hypopygium, Fig. 1 C, D. Brown, concolorous with abdomen. Gonocoxa broad, longer than gonostylus, mesial margin with sparse setosity. Gonostylus evenly narrow, slightly curved, apically truncate, with the mesial side not impressed; with dense apical vestiture, with a strong and short tooth-like process, with 3 apical megasetae, megasetae nearly straight. Tegmen laterally roundish, apex membraneous and barely detectable in the specimen studied, with area of large aedeagal teeth, aedeagal apodeme short.
Discussion. Sciara insulana resembles the Nepalese S. nepalensis Mohrig, 1987, the Chinese S. xizangana Yang & Zhang, 1987, S. isopalpi Yang & Zhang, 1990, S. sclerocerci Yang, Zhang & Yang, 1993, and the Nearctic S. futilis Johannsen, 1912 in having an elongated gonostylus with apical megasetae and a densely setose lobe on the mesial side of these megasetae (see Mohrig & Martens (1987), Yang & Zhang (1987), Zhang & Yang (1990), Yang, Zhang. & Yang (1993) and Mohrig et al. (2013)). Sciara insulana is similar to S. nepalensis, S. futilis and S. isopalpi, and differs from S. sclerocerci and S. xizangana in having a small apical tooth at the apex of the gonostylus. Sciara insulana differs from S. futilis in having a more evenly narrow gonostylus (distinctly narrowed towards the apex in S. futilis) and in having four (eight in S. futilis) gonostylar megasetae (for S. futilis, see Mohrig et al. 2013: 248). Sciara insulana differs from S. nepalensis in having a narrower gonostylus with a very short, setose, apical lobe instead of having a very distinct one. Sciara insulana is most similar to S. isopalpi. The type material of this species is apparently lost (pers. comm. of Xu Jun, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Linan, China). Based on the original description of S. isopalpi, (Yang & Zhang 1990), the second and third segment of its maxillary palpus are subequal in length, in S. insulana the third segment is distinctly longer. The description of S. isopalpi does not allow any detailed study of its structure, but it is highly unlikely that this Inner Mongolian species would be conspecific with S. insulana.
As the apical tooth of the gonostylus is such an important character in species diagnostics of Sciaridae, S. futilis, S.insulana, S. isopalpi and S. nepalensis are placed in a new species group, the Sciara futilis group.
Etymology. The word is Latin, insulana (islander) referring to the type locality of the species in the New Caledonian archipelago.
description: Published as part of Vilkamaa, Pekka, Hippa, Heikki & Mohrig, Werner, 2015, The genus Sciara Meigen (Diptera, Sciaridae) in New Caledonia, with the description of two new species, pp. 589-594 in Zootaxa 3974 (4) on pages 590-591, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3974.4.10, http://zenodo.org/record/241144