Lycoriella excavata Menzel & Vilkamaa 2021, sp. n.
Creators: name: Menzel, Frank
name: Vilkamaa, Pekka
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sciaridae
Lycoriella
Lycoriella excavata

description: Lycoriella excavata sp. n.
Figs 2B, 3D, 12B
Material studied. Holotype male. USA, Colorado, Laramer Co., Pinewood Springs, 40.2677°N, 105.3678°W, Malaise trap, 26.VII–7.IX.2014, S. & B. Fitzgerald (in MZH, http://id.luomus.fi/GE.1811).
Description. Male. Head. Face and antenna concolorous brown, maxillary palpus pale brown. Eye bridge 1–2 facets wide. Face with 27 setae. Clypeus with 1 seta. Maxillary palpus with 3 segments, 1 st segment longer than 3 rd segment, 2 nd segment shortest; 1 st segment with 3 setae, with deep dorsal pit with sensilla; surface of antennal flagellomeres smooth, body of 4 th antennal flagellomere 2.8x as long as wide, neck slightly longer than wide, longest setae longer than width of flagellomere. Thorax. Brown; setae pale. Anterior pronotum with 9 setae. Proepisternum with 10 setae. Scutellum with 2 moderately long and some short and fine setae. Wing. Fumose. Length 1.9 mm. Width/length 0.40. Anal lobe small. Veins distinct, except for stM. c/w 0.65. R1/R 0.75. stM longer than fork of M. bM as long as r-m, stCuA shortest. bM and r-m non-setose. Halter yellow. Legs. Pale brown; setae pale. Fore tibial organ forming large patch of setae in demarcated depression. Fore tibial spur longer than apical width of tibia.
Abdomen. Pale brown; setae pale, short and weak. Hypopygium (Fig. 2B). Brown, like abdomen. Intergonocoxal area moderately long, with semicircular setose lobe. Gonocoxa narrow and long, longer than gonostylus, with sparse, rather short setosity. Gonostylus (Fig. 3D) widest subapically, slightly narrowed towards apex, deeply excavated dorsally; densely setose apically, with long and narrow apical tooth, with 1 subapical and 7–8 medial megasetae on ventral margin of apical half of gonostylus; with long whip-lash seta in middle. Tegmen (Fig. 12B) longer than wide, slightly notched apically, weakly sclerotized laterally, with area of minute teeth apicoventrally, with area of small aedeagal teeth. Aedeagal apodeme moderately long.
BIN. Unknown.
Discussion. Lycoriella excavata sp. n. with its subapically widened, lobe-shaped gonostyli resembles Lycoriella piristylata Vilkamaa, Hippa & Heller, 2013, which has (in contrast to the original description) also a palpal sensory pit and therefore belongs to Lycoriella Frey. In contrast to Lycoriella excavata sp. n., in L. piristylata a long whiplash seta is missing, the intercoxal lobe is small (or absent in some specimens), the apical tooth is significantly shorter or completely reduced and the tegmen is short and trapezoidal (Vilkamaa et al. 2013: fig. 3A–C). Lycoriella excavata sp. n. (Fig. 2B) also differs from this species in its ventrally enlarged lobe-shaped gonostylus with a very deep dorsal excavation, all medial megasetae of the gonostylus on its ventral margin, and its tegmen with apicolateral teeth. Apicolateral teeth of the tegmen are currently known only in Lycoriella taimyrensis described here (Fig. 13E), in some species of angustostylata species group in Bradysia Winnertz, 1867 (Menzel & Heller 2005; Mohrig 2016), as well in Odontosciara Rübsaamen, 1908 (Mohrig 2003).
Etymology. The name is a Latin adjective, excavata, meaning hollowed, and refers to the strongly hollowed gonostylus.
description: Published as part of Menzel, Frank & Vilkamaa, Pekka, 2021, New species and records of Lycoriella Frey (Diptera, Sciaridae) from the Holarctic region, pp. 501-530 in Zootaxa 5072 (6) on pages 509-510, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5072.6.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5751541