Systellapha ornatithorax Enderlein
Creators: name: Marshall, Stephen A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Micropezidae
Systellapha
Systellapha ornatithorax

description: Systellapha ornatithorax Enderlein
Figs. 4 A–G
Systellapha ornatithorax Enderlein, 1922: 190.
Systellapha maculifrons Czerny, 1931: 22.
Grallipeza ornatithorax, Hennig, 1934: 299.
Redescription: Head: Mostly dark brown, frontal vitta orange immediately in front of ocelli and darker behind. Orbital strip yellow, darkened anteriorly. Parafacial yellow-orange ventrally, black on dorsal half. Pedicel with golden apical ventral bristles.
Thorax: Mesonotum with a broad central strip flanked by silvery microtrichose areas divided by transverse suture, broad central strip dark brown, without a narrow central vitta but with indistinct narrow silvery vitta anterolaterally. Dorsocentral bristles in two postsutural pairs. Fore and hind tarsus white; mid tarsus pale brown, similar to tibia. Mid and hind femora pale brown or yellowish with indistinct brown bands on basal and distal halves, brown bands short, about as long as femoral width. Posterior row of katepisternal bristles golden brown, other katepisternal bristles yellow.
Female abdomen: Pale brown, dull and microtrichose except for shiny brown oviscape, posterolateral corners of T2 black. Pleuron color not visible on available material. Spermatheca with major duct broad, conspicuously transversely striate, almost parallel sided; stems of paired spermathecae broad, tightly coiled, and gradually expanded to very large oval spermathecae, ducts and spermathecae also transversely striate. Minor duct similar but much smaller, leading to paired small spermathecae on straight individual stems. Spermathecae adorned with elongate tubercles. Ventral receptacle not visible.
Male abdomen: Dull brown except for shiny S8, pale and heavily microtrichose epandrium, and yellow lateral margins of T2 continuous with pleural sac; pleuron of available material discolored but P2 with an elongate golden microtrichose pleural sac on dorsal third. Sternite 5 with an elongate genital fork, with long, slender arms distinctively and strongly downturned in distal half; basal lobe of genital fork short and quadrate with short apical branches with one or two apical spurs; remainder of inner surface of fork with about 6 sessile spurs. Distiphallus exceptionally long, thick basal distiphallus slightly shorter than epandrium, expanding into a broad phallic bulb at 1/3; distal distiphallus long, thread-like
Type material: Syntypes: (3#m, MNBG): PARAGUAY. Sapucay, Lapuray, 12.i.1905, J.D. Anisits (1#m); “collected by von Fiebrig ” (1#m); BRAZIL.”south Brazil” (1#m).
Other material examined: ARGENTINA. Misiones, 5kmE Puerto Iguazo, behind Hotel Orquideas, 1–6.ii.1992, S.A. Marshall (1 #m, DEBU, barcode sequence number MYCRO 458-18). BRAZIL. Nova Teutonia, 300–500m, various dates (iii–xii, 1948–1964), Fritz Plaumann (6#m, 15#f, CNCI). The Natural History Museum (London) has three further specimens from Nova Teutonia determined by Hennig, and Hennig (1934) records the species from Theresopilis, Rio de Janeiro and Alto da Serra, Sao Paulo. He also mentions a specimen in Halle labelled “Los Angeles, California”, which he considered to be a probable error.
Type Locality of Systellapha maculifrons Czerny: BRAZIL. São Paulo, Bocaina, Fazenda do Bonito.
Comments: Systellapha ornatithorax differs from congeners in details of the genital fork, phallic bulb, spermathecal ducts and pigmentation, but similarities such as the elongate male terminalia, the four similarly shaped spermathecae, and the dark thorax with silvery microtrichose areas reflect a close relationship. Enderlein indicated that he thought this species was closely related to Systellapha varia Enderlein, however S. varia is now treated as a Poecilotylus (Steyskal 1968).
description: Published as part of Marshall, Stephen A., 2020, Revision of the genus Systellapha Enderlein (Micropezidae, Taeniapterinae), pp. 369-376 in Zootaxa 4751 (2) on pages 374-375, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4751.2.11, http://zenodo.org/record/3713687