Ptecticus pseudospatulatus Torres-Toro & Pujol-Luz & Wolff 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Torres-Toro, Juliana
name: Pujol-Luz, José Roberto
name: Wolff, Marta
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Stratiomyidae
Ptecticus
Ptecticus pseudospatulatus

description: Ptecticus pseudospatulatus sp. nov.
Figs. 15, 17, 19, 22–23, 25, 27, 30–31, 35–37, 40–41, 43, 45, 47, 50–51, 52–54, 62–65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74–79, 80–83.
Diagnosis. Dark species except abdomen (Figs. 25, 27). Mesonotum dark brown and pleura dark with anepimeron bright yellow. Antenna light brown (Fig. 17). Vein R 2+3 originating very close to r-m especially in male (Fig. 30). Anterior legs with all tarsi appearing dark, middle and hind with only tarsi 4, 5 appearing dark (Fig. 35–37). Abdomen with tergites 1–4 yellow, 2–3 stripe marked with dark brown, and 5–7 completely dark brown (Figs. 40, 41). Terminalia completely dark with cerci very long (Figs. 41, 45, 47).
Material examinated. HOLOTYPE: ♂, Colombia, Antioquia San Vicente Ferrer, Vda. Chaparral, Finca. La Mosca, organal. 6.266579, -74.360599, 2150m, Guano Carollia perspicillata 15.ii.2020. J. Torres-Toro; C. HenaoSepúlveda; V. Ossa. Manual. Emergence adults 22.iii.2020. CEUA-88654. (imago + puparium). PARATYPES. 20 males: body length 9.5–13.5 mm, wing 7.0–11.0 mm; 21 females: 9.5–13.0 mm, wing 8.5–12.0mm; puparia: length 9.5–14.0 mm. Same locality. Catalogue numbers: CEUA-88652 (♀), 88653 (♂), 88655 (♂), 88656 (♀), 88657 (♀ dissected), 88658 (♀), 88659 (♂), 88660 (♂), 88661 (♂), 88672 (♀ dissected), 88674 (♀), 118121 (2♂, 2♀), 118123 (♂, 2♀), 118124 (2♂, 3♀), 118125 (♀), 118126 (♂), 118127 (♀), 118128 (♂), 118130 (♀), 118146 (♂), 118150 (♂), 118151 (♀ dissected), 118181 (♀), 118182 (♀), 118183 (♀), 118184 (♀), 118185 (♂), 118187 (♀), 118188 (♂), 118189 (♂), 118190 (♂), 118191 (♀), 118193 (♂), 118194 (♂), 118195 (♂).
Other examined material: one specimen atypically small, body length 8.0 mm, wing 7.0 mm, catalogue number CEUA-118129 (♀).
Description. Male. Body length 12.0 mm, wing 12.5 mm. Head (Figs. 15, 19) almost globular. Head with hairs black at the vertex, upper frons and scattered at frontal callus, golden hairs at upper half of the occiput, scattered hairs black on frons, otherwise yellow, mainly erect, longest hairs reaching length of scape. Frontal callus prominent, oval, wider than long, almost as long as scape in profile, triangle drop-like in frontal view, yellow. Frons tapered towards frontal callus, slightly narrow immediately above it, yellowish-light brown. Ocellar tubercle black with a posterior dark brown stripe towards vertex. Vertex with a dark brown transverse stripe from ocellar tubercle to occiput. Occiput black. Antenna brownish, scape slightly longer than broad at distal margin, pedicel with usual subtriangular projection on inner surface slightly rounded, flagellar complex nearly round from outer view (Figs. 22, 23), subapical arista like terminal flagellomere black. Face yellowish brown, proboscis yellowish brown. Thorax (Figs. 25, 27) brown to dark brown, thoracic hairs conspicuous, mostly black, scutum hairs generally shorter than frontal hairs; propleuron brown with golden hairs; notopleuron brownish with golden hairs katatergite brown with golden hairs; mediotergite yellowish brown with golden hairs; anepisternum blackish extensively bare, katepisternum blackish with whitish hairs, anepimeron bright yellow with golden hairs, scutellum yellowish brown, triangular. Wing (Fig. 30) almost hyaline shining, alula completely bare, pterostigma yellow. Cell r 2+3 low and long, almost 8 times longer than tall, vein R 2+3 arising after and approximately at 1/2 of r-m length, noticeably fused to R 1, so, shorter than R 4. Crossvein r-m almost straight, longer than distal margin of discal cell, discal cell with upper posterior margin almost straight, vein M 3 slightly parallel to M 2 with apical fourth reduced. Wing fold in cup cell pigmented. Halter stem yellowish brown basally to brown apically, halter knob darker brown dorsally. Posttegula with a bunch of black hairs. Legs (Figs. 35–37). Hairs mostly yellow. All legs yellowish to light brown, darker in the apical half of femora and tibia; anterior legs with all tarsi gradually dark to the apex, middle and hind legs with the apical tarsomeres appearing darker because the black hairs in all the dorsal extension. Abdomen (Fig. 40, 41) markedly petiolated, with tergites 1–4 yellow, 2–3 marked with dark brown, tergites and sternites 5–7 completely dark brown-black. Terminalia (Fig. 50) completely dark brown. Epandrium straight, proctiger rounded (Figs. 43, 45, 47), cerci strongly sclerotized. Genital capsule rounded and gonostylus as in figure 45, posterior sclerotized portion of phallus hook-like shaped as in figure 51.
Female. Body length 9.5–13.0 mm, wing 8.5–12.0mm (Fig. 31). Differs from male in the following: upper frons almost parallel, yellowish brown with two lateral triangular dark bands reaching the sides of ocellar triangle (Fig. 17). Terminalia (Fig. 52), genital fork with the apex of anterior margin rounded (Figs. 53, 54).
Puparium. (Figs. 62–65, 67, 69, 71, 73). Length Holotype: 11.0 mm; Paratypes: 9.5–14.0 mm comprising head. Nearly identical of P. benecki sp. nov. except the following few characters: Head. as long as one eleventh of entire puparium. ventrocraneal sulcus well developed. Chaetotaxy: 3 pairs of lateral setae (L) 3 pairs of ventral setae (V). Thorax. chaetotaxy: Prothorax, 1 pair of ventral setae (V) tetrapartite. (V 2). Abdomen. A tiny, sclerotized tubercle resembling a scar with size equivalent to the structural units of the cuticle (Fig. 73) at the level of the dorsolateral seta (D1). Additionally, the general coloration in P. spatulatus is darker and with the longitudinal dark sections wider than in P. benecki sp. nov.
Mature larvae (final instar, wander). (Figs. 74–79).
The last instar of Ptecticus pseudospatulatus share with the puparia almost all characters as the design of the integument, size, location of setae and the presence of a dark cuticular wart of similar size to the surrounding elements at the level of the lateral bristles, as well as the formation of the suture in the form of a “Y” where hatching occurs. Both differ behaviorally in that the last larval instar presents active movements on itself, sideways and is “fast” when moving forward to seek shelter; morphologically, the mature larva is slightly softer and, of course, presents abdominal spiracles, general appearance is bright in colors (Figs. 74–79). The pupa, on the other hand, is completely rigid, evidently darker and, even though tiny, with the presence of pupal respiratory horns.
As Schremmer (1986) specifies, for Sarginae and Hermetiinae “the penultimate instar in relation to the last or “pre-pupa”, may look like larvae of different species”, unlike other mainly aquatic subfamilies. The mature larva of Ptecticus pseudospatulatus differs strongly from an earlier instar that we fixed (two specimens length 11.5 mm and 12.0 mm; possibly from the penultimate instar five), In our specimens—in that earlier stage—there is an absence of integument design, general setation is dense and conspicuous without differentiation of dorsal, lateral or ventral setae on thorax and abdomen, the appearance of the body is remarkably soft to touch, the cephalic capsule is dark, elongated and the eyes are compact instead of voluptuous (Figs. 80–83). Eight larvae, six mature: (CEUA-88663, CEUA-88650).
Etymology. The epithet of this species refers to similarity with the species P. spatulatus McFadden.
Comments. Ptecticus pseudospatulatus have genitalia, very similar to the Mexican species Ptecticus spatulatus according to McFadden (fig. 62 in James & McFadden 1982). As mentioned above, the external morphology of P. spatulatus was examined from holotype pictures [CNC1173628] (CNC 2021) and differs in the following characters: i) P. spatulatus ’ superior front hairs are yellow (Fig. 11), whereas in P. pseudospatulatus are black (Fig. 15); ii) the abdominal pattern of P. spatulatus is characterized by being obscure in almost the entire extension of the tergites from the second (Figs. 9, 10), whereas in P. pseudospatulatus from tergites 2 to 4 are limited to the middle region or the anterior central margin (Figs. 40, 41); iii) in both species, the R 2+3 vein emerges equally posterior to r-m, but in Ptecticus pseudospatulatus much closer to r-m (Fig. 30) than in P. spatulatus (Fig. 8), also vein r-m in P. pseudospatulatus is almost straight and in P. spatulatus obliquous; iv) in the posterior legs of P. spatulatus the tibias are dark in 2/3 of the extension and all the tarsomeres are yellow (Fig. 9), whereas in P. pseudospatulatus the tibias are lighter (possibly 1/2) and the tarsomeres 4 and 5 are darker at least dorsally (Fig. 37).
Finally, the Table 2, shows a comparison between the known Colombian species.
description: Published as part of Torres-Toro, Juliana, Pujol-Luz, José Roberto & Wolff, Marta, 2022, Two new species of Ptecticus Loew, 1855 (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), from bat guano in a Colombian cave, pp. 61-88 in Zootaxa 5116 (1) on pages 74-85, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5116.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/6364301