Sphegina (Asiosphegina) lucida Steenis & Hippa & Mutin 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Steenis, Jeroen Van
name: Hippa, Heikki
name: Mutin, Valeri A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Sphegina
Sphegina lucida

description: Sphegina (Asiosphegina) lucida sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 561D1E5E-EDBF-4FAD-86ED-69DF3D2B73A2
Figs 54H, 56, 58 A–D, 59C
Differential diagnosis
Sphegina (Asiosphegina) lucida sp. nov. is not especially similar to any other species and is easily distinguished by the characters given in the key. The male genitalia resemble those of Sphegina (Asiosphegina) spenceri sp. nov. but the surstyli are much longer and the superior lobes are more simple, lacking a posteroventral bifid sublobe on the right side and a sharp ventral sublobe on the left side.
Etymology
The specific epithet is from the Latin ‘ lucida ’, meaning ‘shiny’ and referring to the shiny frons, especially in the female.
Material examined
Holotype
VIETNAM • ♂; “Viet Nam: Fyan; / 1200 m / 11.VII–9.VIII.1961 ”; “ N. R. Spencer / Collector / Bishop”; BPBM.
Paratypes
VIETNAM • 3 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀; same data as for holotype; BPBM • 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; same data as for holotype; JSA • 12 ♂♂, 11 ♀♀; “Viet Nam: Fyan / 900–1000 m / 11.VII–9.VIII.1961 ”; “ N. R. Spencer / Collector; / Bishop”; BPBM • 11 ♂♂, 9 ♀♀; same data as for preceding; JSA • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; “ Viet Nam: Dalat / 6 km S 1400–1500 m / 9.VI–7.VII 1961 ”; “ N. R. Spencer / Collector / Bishop”; BPBM • 1 ♀; “Viet Nam: Mt. Lang / Bian 1500–2000 m / 19. V–8. VI 1961 ”; “ N. R. Spencer / Collector / Bishop”; JSA.
Additional material
NEW GUINEA • 1 ♀; “ West New Guinea / Vogelkop Kebar Val. / W of Manokwari 550 m / 4–31.I.1962 ”; “ L. W. Quate / Collector”; BPBM • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; JSA.
Description
Male
LENGTH. Body 5.5–5.9 mm, wing 4.1–4.4 mm.
HEAD. Face in lateral view concave, weakly projected antero-ventrally; frontal prominence very weakly developed. Ratio width of vertex at anterior ocellus: width of head 1: 4.1–4.6; ratio width of ocellar triangle: width of vertex 1: 1.9–2.0; ratio length of ocellar triangle: length of frons 1: 3.8–4.0. Face with dorsal half dark brown to black and ventral half orange-brown to dark brown; light grey pollinose, long pilose along eye-margin. Hypostomal bridge dark brown, long pale pilose. Gena and mouth edge orange-brown to dark brown with large subtriangular non-pollinose shiny area. Frons and vertex black, with small subtriangular medial macula posteriorly of lunula grey-pollinose, otherwise brightly shiny (Fig. 54H); pile short, light yellow. Frons with narrow medial rim and anteriorly from ocelli with deep V-shaped furrow. Occiput black, non-pollinose and shiny, light yellow pilose. Eye with slightly enlarged facets at anterior margin. Antenna orange to orange-brown with black setae dorsally on scape and pedicel; basoflagellomere short oval, ratio width: length 1: 1.1–1.3; arista long pilose, nearly 3 times as long as basoflagellomere.
THORAX. Colour black, postalar callus and proepimeron brown-yellow; weakly greyish pollinose, pleuron sub-shiny; scutum and pleuron with very short adpressed light yellow pile. Scutellum sub-triangular, brown-yellow, shiny on posterior ⅔ to ½, with pile slightly longer than on scutum, with two widely set short setae medially at posterior margin, ratio length of scutellum: length of seta 1: 1.2–1.3.
WING. Entirely microtrichose; hyaline, stigma yellowish. Crossvein dm-cu meeting vein M obliquely and vein M 1 meeting vein R
4+5
perpendicularly.
LEGS. Pro- and mesoleg yellow, tarsomeres 4 and 5 black. Metaleg with coxa black, trochanter yellow, femur black and yellow biannulate, slightly incrassate, ratio width: length 1: 3.9–4.3; tibia black and yellow biannulate with wide, short, rounded apicoventral dens; tarsus entirely black, basitarsomere rather thin, ratio width: length 1: 3.6–4.0.
ABDOMEN. Length ratio of terga I: II: III: IV 1: 4.2–4.4: 2.0–2.1: 1.8–1.9; ratio width at posterior margin: medial length of tergum II and III 1: 4.4–4.7 and 1: 1.0–1.1. Terga black, tergum II anteriorly with mediolateral small light-brown macula; anterior ⅓ of tergum III with yellow fascia with posterior margin deeply incised; pile pale, on terga short, laterally on terga I and II long; tergum I with a row of 2–3 strong light-brown setae at lateral margin; sternum III rectangular, ratio width: length 1: 1.6–1.9; sterna VI, VII and VIII (Fig. 58A) with long yellow pile, sternum VIII with low widely rounded elevation posteriorly. Genitalia, Fig. 58 B–D: note the asymmetrical surstyli and superior lobes.
Female
Similar to male except for the usual sexual dimorphism.
LENGTH. Body 5.2–5.9 mm, wing 4.1–4.5 mm.
HEAD. Ratio width of vertex at anterior ocellus: width of head 1: 3.6–3.9; ratio width of ocellar triangle: width of vertex 1: 1.9–2.1; ratio length of ocellar triangle: length of frons 1: 3.3–3.6. Basoflagellomere oval, ratio width: length 1: 1.2–1.4; arista long pilose, about 2.5 times as long as basoflagellomere.
THORAX. Scutellum with two widely set short setae medially at posterior margin, ratio length of scutellum: length of seta 1: 1.2–1.4.
LEGS. Metafemur with ratio width: length 1: 3.6–4.1; metatarsus with basitarsomere rather thin, ratio width: length 1: 3.8–4.1.
ABDOMEN. Length ratio of terga I: II: III: IV: V 1: 4.0–4.2: 2.5–2.9: 2.3–2.9: 0.9–1.1; ratio width at posterior margin: medial length of tergum II and III 1: 2.6–2.9 and 1: 0.8. Tergum III anteriorly with orange-brown lateral macula to a narrow fascia; tergum IV with anterior ½ dark brown; tergum V entirely orange-brown; sternum III rectangular, ratio width: length 1: 1.8–2.2; sternum IV crescentshaped with convex posterior margin, ratio width: length 1: 1.7–2.1; sternum V rectangular, ratio width: length 1: 0.4–0.5.
Remarks
The two females from New Guinea are morphologically similar to the females from Vietnam. The large geographic distance and especially the altitude at which the specimens have been collected differ so much that it is possible that the specimens from New Guinea belong to a different species. As no males are known from New Guinea, the specimens are here tentatively assigned to Sphegina (Asiosphegina) lucida sp. nov.
description: Published as part of Steenis, Jeroen Van, Hippa, Heikki & Mutin, Valeri A., 2018, Revision of the Oriental species of the genus Sphegina Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Syrphidae), pp. 1-198 in European Journal of Taxonomy 489 on pages 121-124, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2018.489, http://zenodo.org/record/3830537