Trichoclinocera gracilis Saigusa & Sinclair, 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Saigusa, Toyohei
name: Sinclair, Bradley J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Empididae
Trichoclinocera
Trichoclinocera gracilis

description: Trichoclinocera gracilis sp. nov.
(Figs 4 B, 6, 9B, 12D–F, 16B, 17C, D, 18C, D)
Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂, labelled: “(KYUSHU)/ Kumamoto/ Minamata/ 6.vii.1968 / T. Saigusa”; “[HOLOTYPE]/ Trichoclinocera / gracilis / Saigusa et/ Sinclair, 2016 [red label]” (KUMF). PARATYPES: JAPAN. HONSHU. Hyogo: Oginosen [35°26′21″ N 134°26′ 26″E], 20.vii.1962, A. Nakanishi (5 ♂, 1 ♀, KUMF, CNC). Kyoto: Kibune, 8.vi.1963, TS (9 ♂, 8 ♀, BMNH, CNC, KUMF). Nagano: Hakuba, trib of Himekawa River, 5–6.viii.1998, BJS (1 ♂, CNC). Tokyo: Takaosan, 27.vi.1965, A. Katô (1 ♂, 2 ♀, KUMF, CNC). Yamanashi: Kanayama, Sudama, 19.viii.1962, TS (1 ♀, KUMF); Sekisuiji, Kofu, 1.vi.1960, TS (1 ♂, KUMF); Shosenkyo, 6.vi.1962, TS (18 ♂, 14 ♀, KUMF, BMNH, CNC). KYUSHU. Kumamoto: same data as holotype (8 ♂, 8 ♂, CNC, KUMF). SHIKOKU. Ehime: Nametoko, Uwajima, 24.v.1988, TS (1 ♀, KUMF).
Recognition. Distinguished from other Japanese species by its smaller size and more delicate appearance, ventral setae of fore femur mostly slender and pale, lacking anterodorsal and posterodorsal bristles on mid and hindlegs, and darker face.
Description. Wing length 3.8–4.0 mm. Male. Clothed in blue pruinescence except head, scutum, and dorsum of abdomen brown. Head rounded; compound eyes large, rounded. Face mostly brown to greyish, with faint median brown stripe; face narrowest just below antennae, slightly wider than width of antennal sockets; lower margin of face with shallow cleft and low carina; gena one-fifth as wide as height of eye. Ocellar bristles longest among cranial bristles; occiput with 2 pairs of bristles posterior to ocellar triangle; postocular with row of short bristles along margin of eye, upper half darker and more stout than lower bristles. Arista-like stylus long and slender, slightly tapered apically. Palpus cylindrical, slender, length less than half height of eye.
Pleura, postpronotal lobe and notopleuron with pale blue pruinescence, much more faint on scutum; posterolateral corner of scutum near postalar ridge concolorous with surrounding region; prescutellar depression brown; scutum faintly bivittate. Thoracic setae long, some longer than width of eye; acrostichal setulae lacking; 6 pairs dc; 1 pprn; 1 presut spal; 2–3 npl; 2 psut spal; 1 pal; 1 pair sctl, lacking setulae on disc; several setulae on notopleural depression and postpronotal lobe. Laterotergite with patch of pale setae; prothoracic episternum with long pale setae, setae lacking on katepisternum, metepisternum with pale setae on posterodorsal margin.
Wing narrow, infuscate (Fig. 16 B); pterostigma very narrow, faint, parallel-sided. Basal costal seta subequal to length of posterior dc. Row of setulae from base of R to tip of R1; cell dm produced apically; R4 and R5 generally parallel, divergent beyond mid-length. Halter brown with pale base.
Legs uniformly dark, coxae with blue pruinescence. Coxae with long pale, marginal setae. Fore femur (Figs 17 C, D) with 2 stout anterior bristles in oblique row on apical third; anteroventral and posteroventral margins with continuous row of setae, increasing in length basally, increasing in stoutness on apical third; basal setae longer than width of femur. Fore tibia with biserial row of short, stout setae beneath. Foreleg tarsomeres with pale ventral pubescence. Mid and hind femora with several pairs of preapical antero- and posteroventral setae; anterodorsal bristles on apical half; lacking posterodorsal bristles. Hind tibia lacking pair of posterodorsal and anterodorsal basal setae; row of short bristles or preapical bristles lacking. Tarsus length longer than corresponding fore and mid tibiae, shorter than hind tibia. Empodium pulvilliform, slightly shorter than claw, longer than half length of tarsomere.
Hypandrium short, broad, quadrate, slightly larger than epandrium (Figs 4 B, 9B). Phallus extended slightly beyond apex of clasping cercus, slightly arched at mid-length; apex greatly expanded into 3 membranous lobes as seen laterally: anterior lobe single, posterior lobes paired; ejaculatory apodeme gently bent at anterior third. Surstylus with pair of teeth-like processes on anterior margin, each process bearing seta. Clasping cercus wide medially, strongly tapered or more slender, not attenuated on apical half, bearing peg-like setae on inner dorsal margin.
Female. Similar to male except as follows: fore femur with only a few slender, pale posteroventral setae near base; fore tibia lacking biserial rows of erect setae beneath (Figs 18 C, D). Posterior marginal setae of tergum 7 moderately fine and longish, slightly shorter dorsally; sternum 7 with straight posterior margin bearing evenly distributed setae similar to setae on terga, slightly longer laterally, shorter on midventral area; tergum 8 with posterior marginal setae moderately dense, longish and weakly curved ventrally on dorsal surface; sternum 8 not distinctly emarginated posteriorly, densely clothed with minute pile-like setulae, sparsely with minute setulae on lateral surface; tergite 10 with 20–25 long and rather slender apically curved setae, somewhat stouter and shorter towards apex of tergite; sternite 10 with longish setae, longest 1.5 times as long as sternum (Figs 12 D–F).
Distribution. This species is known from central Honshu and Shikoku (Fig. 6).
Etymology. The specific epithet “ gracilis ” refers to the delicate long legs and foreleg chaetotaxy compared to other Japanese species of Trichoclinocera.
Remarks. This species appears to be much rarer in collections than other Japanese species of Trichoclinocera, with only short series collected.
description: Published as part of Saigusa, Toyohei & Sinclair, Bradley J., 2016, Revision of the Japanese species of Trichoclinocera Collin (Diptera: Empididae: Clinocerinae), pp. 201-229 in Zootaxa 4103 (3) on pages 207-209, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4103.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/255748