Opalimosina calcarifera
Creators: name: Cao, Wenqiang
name: Yang, Ding
name: Dong, Hui
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sphaeroceridae
Opalimosina
Opalimosina calcarifera

description: 3. O. calcarifera (Roháček, 1975)
(Figs. 4, 5)
Limosina calcarifera Roháček, 1975: 115 [bothsexes, illustr.]. Type locality: Slovakia, Slovenský kras, Hrušov;— Papp, 1984: 96 [Palaearctic catalog].
Opalimosina (Opalimosina) calcarifera.— Roháček, 1983: 149–150 [generic combination, redescription]; Roháček, 1985: 167, 169–170 [illustr.]; Hayashi, 1989: 64 [misidentification].
Description. Male (Figs. 4A–B). Body length 1.1mm, wing 0.9 mm. General color brown to dark brown.
Head generally dark brown, gena brown; postvertical bristles well developed; 4 short interfrontal bristles, foremost one a little shorter; 2 fronto-orbital bristles; 7 additional fronto-orbital setulae forming a long row between interfrontal bristles and eye. Eye oval, its longest diameter about 1.3 times as long as shortest genal height. Antenna brown, postpedicel slighter brown; arista about 6.25 times as long as postpedicel and shortly ciliate.
Thorax brown. Postpronotal lobe with 1 dorsolateral bristle, 2–3 small setulae along inner margin and 1 erect setula laterally; 2 postsutural dorsocentral bristles, anterior one short (but longer than dorsocentral setulae in front of it); about 6 rows of irregular acrostichal setulae in front of suture; prescutellar medial pair of acrostichal setulae not enlarged (shorter than anterior dorsocentral bristle). Scutellum roundly triangular, with a pair very long bristles, laterobasal bristle shorter. Two katepisternal bristles, anterior minute. Legs brown. Mid tibia ventrally with anteroventral bristle at basal 1/2 and 1 strong apical bristle; hind tibia with conspicuous long curved ventral preapical spur. Wing lightly infuscate, veins light brownish; costa brown, with a pair of long subequal costal bristles at base, and ending at apex of R4+5; R2+3 sinuate, apex distinctly bent up to C; R4+5 gently curved forward; C - index=1.1, second costal sector subequal to third; outer corners of dm rectangular and with short appendages of M 1 and M 4 beyond dm-m; r-m–dm-m: dm-m =2.9. Alula small, narrow, pointed. Halter with brown knob and paler stem.
Abdomen brown with dark brown apex. Tergites and sternites sparsely and shortly setulose. T1+2 short and simply sclerotized. Sternite 5 (Fig. 5B) posteromedially distinctly incised, with a pair of posterior characteristic processes at sides of incision and a weakly sclerotized area anteriorly; otherwise densely and shortly setulose.
Genitalia: Epandrium (Figs. 5A; 5E) sparsely and shortly setulose. Cercus generally short, slightly projecting ventrally, each with 2 setae. Hypandrium short. Surstylus (Fig. 5C) flat; anterior corner bifurcated and pointed, with some short setae ventrally; posterior corner blunt, with a few setae and 2 long, robust bristles. Basiphallus with shoeshaped epiphallus having blunt apex. Distiphallus generally complex and well sclerotized; dorsal part narrows from base and bifurcates at tip; ventral part links together beneath bifurcated tip of dorsal part and anterodorsally connects with well sclerotized apex (closing medially). Postgonite long, distally widened, apically obtuse (Fig. 5D).
Female. No specimens were found during this study.
Material examined: CHINA: Shanxi: Lvliang, Pangquangou: 1♂, Badaogou, 1930 m, 15.vii.2023, Meilin Li; 1♂, Xitagou, 1993 m, 16.vii.2023, Leyou Zhang; 1♂, Heiquling, 1933 m, 19.vii.2023, Meilin Li (all EMCAU).
Comments: This species is widely distributed in the Palaearctic region (Papp, 1984). It resembles O. australis Hayashi, 2009. Specimens treated as O. calcarifera by Hayashi (1989) were only later recognized as a different species and described as O. australis Hayashi, 2009. Opalimosina australis differs from O. calcarifera in having the apex of the postgonite pointed and the posteromedial incision of the male fifth sternite deep.
description: Published as part of Cao, Wenqiang, Yang, Ding & Dong, Hui, 2024, A review of Opalimosina Roháček, 1983 (Diptera, Sphaeroceridae) from China with new records and two new species, pp. 353-368 in Zootaxa 5551 (2) on pages 358-359, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5551.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/14421367