Empidideicus (Anomaloptilus) rinhai Evenhuis & Gharali 2022, n. sp.
Creators: name: Evenhuis, Neal L.
name: Gharali, Babak
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Bombyliidae
Empidideicus
Empidideicus rinhai

description: Empidideicus (Anomaloptilus) rinhai Evenhuis & Gharali, n. sp.
(Figs 15, 16, 19, 38, 39, 47, 61, 62, 77)
Types. Holotype ♂ and 1♂, 1♀ paratypes from MADAGASCAR: Tulear Province: Zombitse National Park, near ANGAP Office, 840 m, 18–23 Dec 2002, M.E. Irwin, F. Parker & R. Harin’Hala, Malaise in deciduous spiny forest (CASLOT 024735). Other paratypes: MADAGASCAR: 2♂, Tulear Province: Cape Ste. Marie Special Reserve, 25°35.26′S, 45°09.78′E, 37 m, 9–15 Dec 2002, M. Irwin, F. Parker, R. Harin’Hala, Malaise in spiny bush (CASLOT 024734); 1♂, same data except 30 Apr–11 May 2003 (CASLOT 024746). Holotype in CAS, paratypes in CAS and BPBM.
Diagnosis. Most similar to E. (A.) hauseri n. sp. based on having yellow marks in the prescutellar area. It is eastly separated from it based on size (E. (A.) rinhai n. sp. is ca. 1 mm long; whereas E. (A.) hauseri n. sp. is twice that). It is also separated by the lack of coalesced yellow color in the prescutellar area (broadly yellow in E. (A.) hauseri n. sp.) and the open anal cell in the wing (anal cell closed in E. (A.) hauseri n. sp.).
Description
Male (Fig. 15). Length: 1.20–1.30 mm. Wing: 1.00– 1.40 mm. Head (Fig. 19): longer than high; eyes dichoptic, separated at vertex by 1.7× distance between lateral ocelli, tapering to narrow face, width about equal to 3 ommatidia; occiput and postgena black; front slightly depressed medially, white; face gray; antennae (cf. Fig. 23) with scape and pedicel yellow, flagellomeres dark brown; scape short, subtrapezoidal; pedicel subconical, wider than long; first flagellomere lanceolate, length 3.5× width; second flagellomere one-half length of first flagellomere, with minute transparent apical style; mentum white; clypeus brown, length one-half of oral margin length; proboscis brown, slightly longer than head length; labrum sclerotized, stiff, pointed apically, length subequal to clypeus, yellow basally, brown apically; palpus not evident.
Thorax (Fig. 38). Mesonotum matte black, with white markings in following areas: thin admedian longitudinal vittae not reaching scutellum, leaving two small white marks in prescutellar area and thin connection to vittae; dorsolaterally from humeral callus to postalar callus and two large interhumeral marks; scutellum white, dark brown below along posterior margin; pleura brown with white color on following: posterior half of anepisternum and anepimeron, upper half of meron; upper margin of katepisternum; propleuron white; halter and knob white.
Leg. Coxae yellow, brown basally, mid and hind coxae with much more brown than fore coxa; femora and tibiae yellow with some brown basally; tarsi 3–5 pale brown, remainder of leg white.
Wing (Fig. 47). Elongate, length 2.7× width; hyaline; veins brown; costa ends just beyond end of R 4+5; vein Sc incomplete; Rs evanescent at connection with R 1; R 4+5 slightly bowed; vein M 1 curved to wing margin; M 2 very slightly curved to wing margin; cell dm closed by apical crossvein; crossvein subequal in width to crossvein r-m; A 1 effaced, straight to wing margin; anal cell narrowly open at wing margin; fringe of hair on posterior margin of wing well shortest at wing tip becoming longer and more sparse toward base.
Abdomen (Fig. 61). Tergites dark brown to black, narrowly white along posterior margin of tergites and laterally; tergites II and III with pale brown spots dorsolaterally; tergites with sparsely scattered minute brown hairs; sternites white.
Genitalia (Fig. 77). Epandrium in lateral view subquadrate with long thin dorsoventral process, process well sclerotized and slightly clubbed apically (Fig. 77A), apex with microscopic hairs (Fig. 77D); gonocoxa in lateral view conical, tapering to apex; in ventral view with basal sclerotize band and large seta medially on each lobe (Fig. 77A); gonostylus subtrapezoidal with rounded medial process, apex of medial process with microscopic hairs (Fig. 77E); lateral arms of parameral sheath large, flared apically, not as long as aedeagal apodeme; aedeagal apodeme peanut-shaped, truncate ventrally, with foliate lateral rami; aedeagal bulb large, in dorsal view truncate apically; distal portion of parameral sheath cylindrical with subapical collar-like sheath over aedeagus (Fig. 77C).
Female: As in male except as follows: Mesonotum (Fig. 39) with admedian vittae more pronounced and complete from interhumeral marks to prescutellar marks, in some specimens somewhat coalesced in prescutellar area with orangish color; scutellum all white. Abdomen (Fig. 62) with brown and yellow to yellowish white pattern; tergite I with anterior brown band complete; tergites II–V with brown band restricted to medial area brown becoming narrower on succeeding segments, tergites II–V with brown dorsolateral spots in yellowish white area. Sternites white. Genitalia not dissected.
Etymology. Named for Rasolandalao Harin’Hala Hasinjaka (“Rin’ha”) who helped collected the type and was instrumental in collecting thousands and thousands of microbombyliids from Madagascar as part of National Science Foundation-funded the “Terrestrial arthropod inventory of Madagascar ”.
description: Published as part of Evenhuis, Neal L. & Gharali, Babak, 2022, The subgenus Empidideicus (Anomaloptilus) (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae) in Madagascar, pp. 401-426 in Zootaxa 5222 (5) on pages 418-423, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5222.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7471736