Agria xiangchengensis Chao & Zhang 1988
Creators: name: Zhang, Dong
name: Zhang, Ming
name: Li, Zijuan
name: Pape, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sarcophagidae
Agria
Agria xiangchengensis

description: Agria xiangchengensis Chao & Zhang, 1988a: 276. China, Sichuan, Xiangcheng.
Originally included specimens: Described from two males.
Name-bearing type: Holotype ♂: Sichuan, Xiangcheng/ Chinese Academy of Sciences/ 2900M. [“Sichuan, Xiangcheng/ 2900M.” handwritten in black ink, remaining in black print, in Chinese]// 1982. VI.18 / Collected by X.Z. Zhang [“1982. VI.18 ” handwritten in black ink, remaining in black print, in Chinese]// HOLOTYPE [red label, in black print]// IOZ(E)216040 [blue label, in black print]// ♂ [white label, in black print]// Agria / xiangchengensis / Zhao & Zhang [white label, in black print]// Agria / xiangchengensis Chao et Zhang / Identified by C.M. Chao [“Identified by C.M. Chao” in black print, in Chinese, remaining handwritten in blue-black ink].
Holotype in fair condition.
Current identity: Mimagria xiangchengensis (Chao & Zhang, 1988), as discussed by Zhang et al. (2013).
Additional type specimen: Paratype 1♂, Sichuan, Xiangcheng, alt. 2900m, 18.VI.1982, Coll. by X.Z. Zhang. Specimen in NZMC.
Remarks: Pape (1992) redefined the genus Agria based on the paired distiphallic arms slanting from an apical insertion point towards the base of the acrophallus and a strongly tapering acrophallus. Because A. xiangchengensis does not possess these features, Pape (1996) cataloged it under “Unplaced species-group taxa of Paramacronychiinae ”. Verves (2001) subsequently accommodated A. xiangchengensis in a monotypic genus Mimagria. Zhang et al. (2013) provided further morphological details for Agria and supported the exclusion of xiangchengensis from this genus. We accept Mimagria as a valid genus with close affinities to Agria, awaiting further studies on the generic phylogeny of the Paramacronychiinae.
Redescription of Male: Body length about 8.0 mm (Fig. 16 A). Eye bare. Fronto-orbital plate, parafacial and postocular strip black with silvery gray pollinosity; parafacial with one row of fine bristles. Frontal vitta black, 1.9× as broad as fronto-orbital plate at the narrowest point; frons at vertex 0.23× as broad as head width (Fig. 16 C); frontal row of 6 or 7 strong bristles; outer vertical bristle not differentiated from postocular bristles. Ocellar bristles directed antero-laterally. Gena background color black, with sparse black bristles and silvery gray pollinosity, height 0.2× eye height in lateral view (Fig. 16 D). Antenna brownish, not reaching the level of vibrissal insertion, first flagellomere about 2.7× as long as pedicel (Fig. 16 D); arista black brown and short plumose, distal half bare. Palpus orange, expanded in distal part.
Thorax ground-color black. Chaetotaxy: acrostichals 1(2)+1, dorsocentrals 3+3, intra-alars 0+2, supra-alars 2, postpronotals 2, notopleurals 2, scutellum with 1 apical, 1 subapical, 1 basal and 1 discal bristles. Pleuron with meropleurals 5 or 6, katepisternal bristles 2: 1, prosternum and metasternum bare, proepisternum bare, postalar wall bare or with one fine bristle.
Wing hyaline; subcostal sclerite and basicosta yellow, bare; tegula dark yellow, with black setulae; costal spine not differentiated (Fig. 16 A); vein R4+5 setose dorsally from junction of R2+3 halfway to crossvein r-m, lower calypter yellowish white.
Legs dark, femur swollen, claws long and thin; fore femur with one row of dorsal bristles in distal half, and with one row of posteroventral bristles (about 12), fore tibia with two posterior bristles; mid femur with one median anterior bristles, with one posterior and one posterdorsal bristles in distal part, mid tibia with two anterior, one apical posterior and one apical posterdorsal bristles; hind femur with one row of anterodorsal bristles (with a gap in the median part) (Fig. 16 E), with one row of anteroventral bristles (about 5) and one row of ventral bristles (about 8), with one posterior bristle, hind tibia with one row of anterodorsal bristles (about 8, among them two strong), one sub-median anteroventral bristle and four posterodorsal bristles (among them two strong).
Abdomen long oval with densely gray pollinosity; tergites each with 3 distinct triangular black spots; tergite 3 without median marginal bristles, tergite 4 with 1 pair of median marginal bristles, tergite 5 with complete row of marginal bristles (Fig. 16 F), syntergosternite 7+8 without marginal bristles. Terminalia: Cercus small, the apex part with claw-like structure in lateral view; surstylus very long, bend toward to the posterior part, and with oval rounded tip; pregonite broad, much longer than postgonite; postgonite small with a strong bristle proximally on anterior margin; juxta large and shell-shaped; phallic tube black; lateral sclerotizations short and entirely covered by the broad juxta, acrophallus divided into two major parts (lower and upper parts), the upper part also divided into two parts (Fig. 16 B).
description: Published as part of Zhang, Dong, Zhang, Ming, Li, Zijuan & Pape, Thomas, 2015, The Sarcophagidae (Insecta: Diptera) described by Chien-ming Chao and Xue-zhong Zhang, pp. 451-509 in Zootaxa 3946 (4) on pages 479-481, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3946.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/253883