Anocha Pritchard, sensu stricto
Creators: name: Jaschhof, Mathias
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Cecidomyiidae
Anocha

description: Genus Anocha Pritchard stat. rev.
Pritchard (1948) introduced the genus Anocha to find adequate placement for Neocatocha spinosa Felt, a Nearctic species known from several females and one damaged (abdomen-less) male. Anocha was synonymized with Catocha by Jaschhof (1998), who thought that characters such as the absence of setae from the wing membrane, a short R4+5, reduced empodia, and long-necked female flagellomeres, are without merit for defining genera of Catochini. Presently at my disposal are five unnamed Catochini whose male genitalic structures are generally similar to one another while their non-genitalic characters correspond largely with that of Anocha spinosa. At the same time these species differ so clearly from Catocha sensu stricto (see Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009 and the remarks on Catocha in this paper) that the genus Anocha is rehabilitated here to absorb them. Besides A. spinosa and the new species described below, this genus contains Anocha minuta (Jaschhof) comb. nov., a species first described as a Catarete (Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009), and Anocha celesteana Pritchard, a species combined with Catocha by Jaschhof (1998). The only character that differentiates both A. minuta and A. celesteana from the core of Anocha is the evenly bent, not sinuous, CuA. Male genitalic morphology gives strong support to classifying Catarete minuta with Anocha, while males of Anocha celesteana remain unknown.
Anocha is shown here for the first time to include several different species in the Palearctic region. The only Palearctic record of Anocha in literature, Skuhravá’s (1997) report of an A. spinosa female found in Moravia, Czech Republic, needs validation by males, the more so as a congeneric species, A. moraviensis sp. nov., is described here from Moravia. Other new Anocha named in the present paper are from Sweden and Japan. Anocha adults are typically found in autumn and winter, occasionally even at freezing temperatures above snow, the only exception being Anocha vernalis sp. nov. whose adults were found in spring. Fewer than 20 specimens, including those referred to below, are all that is known of the eight Anocha species recognized here. Adult activity outside the main season for entomological collecting might explain why Anocha are so rarely encountered. Larvae remain unknown. Females were previously described of A. celesteana and A. spinosa, and are described here of A. glabra sp. nov.
Diagnosis. Anocha are typical Catochini (Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009: 75), with 3 ocelli of normal size, 14 flagellomeres in males, 8 flagellomeres in females, and simple, hair-shaped translucent sensilla on the antennae of both sexes. The eye-bridge is either complete or incomplete, that is, with or without lateral ommatidia. Both scape and pedicel are setose ventrally. Male flagellomeres are provided with a single, sometimes irregular whorl of short setae basally, usually intermingled with a few hair-shaped translucent sensilla. Female flagellomeres usually lack distinct necks, with short necks present in A. spinosa (Jaschhof 1998: fig. 37a). The length of the palpus equals the head height; the apical palpal segment tends to be slightly club-shaped (Fig. 1C); translucent sensilla are concentrated in a pit on the inside of the basal segment, which in females (Fig. 1D) is markedly swollen and the pit larger than in males. The pattern of wing veins (Fig. 2C) is as follows: apicR1, which is markedly bent apically, joins the costa at about the same level as CuA (the only exception is A. celesteana where apicR1 is rather straight and joins the costa proximal to the apex of CuA, see Jaschhof 1998: fig. 35a), R4+5 ends clearly before the apex of the wing, both tines of the M1+2-fork are complete, and CuA is mostly sinuous, sometimes just slightly bent. In some species, posterior veins beginning with M1+2 are extremely faint, i.e. practically indiscernible in slide-mounts. The wing membrane is usually setose, in both A. minuta and A. spinosa largely asetose. The female foretarsus lacks modified setae ventrally (see Catocha). The slightly curved claws are either finely toothed or two-pointed. Empodia are vestigial, i.e. not longer than one third the claw length. Male genitalic structures typical of Anocha, but unknown for A. celesteana and A. spinosa, are: the aedeagal apex covered with numerous small teeth (Fig. 1A); the faint, weakly sclerotized tegmen; and the transverse suture with a membranous window ventrobasally on the gonocoxites (Fig. 1A). This window presumably indicates the presence of the ninth sternite.
Differential diagnosis. Anocha differs in a number of characters from the Catocha latipes group of species, meaning Catocha in the strict sense (see Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009). These differences are described here in detail under the heading of Catocha. Both Catocha barberi Felt and C. betsyae (Pritchard), two species tentatively placed in Catocha by Jaschhof (1998), differ from Anocha in the long R4+5 that extends to the apex of the wing. All other Catochini have fewer flagellomeres than Anocha: females of Catarete and Forbesomyia have 6 (males are unknown), Neocatocha have 8 in males and 6–7 in females, and Tritozyga have 8–10 in males and 6–8 in females.
Key to species. Species of Anocha can be differentiated from each other using characters of the compound eyes, antennae, wings, and male genitalia. Users of the key provided here should be aware of the fact that five out of eight species are known only from males (A. grytsjoenensis sp. nov., A. japonica sp. nov., A. minuta, A. moraviensis sp. nov., A. vernalis); A. celesteana is only known from the female; and A. glabra and A. spinosa are known from both sexes. Equally important to note, unnamed species of Anocha are likely to occur everywhere in the Holarctic realm.
1 Wing with distinct, evenly bent CuA, or CuA and other posterior veins indiscernible............................... 2
- Wing with distinct, sinuous CuA........................................................................ 5
2 CuA distinct, evenly slightly bent....................................................................... 3
- CuA and other posterior veins indiscernible............................................................... 4
3 Wing membrane largely asetose................................................................... A. minuta
- Wing membrane fully setose................................................................. A. celesteana
4 Male flagellomeres with necks shorter than nodes.................................................. A. vernalis
- Male flagellomeres with necks longer than nodes................................................... A. japonica
5 Wing membrane largely asetose.................................................................. A. spinosa
- Wing membrane fully setose........................................................................... 6
6 Eye-bridge incomplete.................................................................... A. grytsjoenensis
- Eye-bridge complete................................................................................. 7
7 Point of furcation of M1+2 situated clearly proximal to apex of M4. M1 and M2 run parallel to each other..... A. moraviensis
- Point of furcation of M1+2 situated at about same level as apex of M4. M1 and M2 diverge...................... A. glabra
description: Published as part of Jaschhof, Mathias, 2017, Catochini, Strobliellini and Acoenoniini revisited: a taxonomic review of the small tribes of the Micromyinae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), pp. 275-295 in Zootaxa 4250 (3) on pages 276-277, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4250.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/495060