Stylogaster malaisei Stuke, 2015, spec. nov.
Creators: name: Stuke, Jens-Hermann
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Conopidae
Stylogaster
Stylogaster malaisei

description: Stylogaster malaisei spec. nov.
(Figs 92–102)
Type material. Holotype ♂: (1) Madagascar, Fianarantsoa / Miandritsara Forest, 40km S / Ambositra, 825m, malaise trap / 2047.56′S 4710.54′E / 26.XII.2004 – 5.I.05 Irwin leg. / MA–29–05 CASLOT 021144; (2) Holotypus / Stylogaster malaisei / spec. nov. / det. Stuke, 2014.
Holotype is deposited in the CAS. Abdomen dissected, macerated and stored in glycerine in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen. The thorax is broken by the pin and a small part of the right wing is missing. The holotype is otherwise in good condition.
Description of holotype (male). Body length about 5.5 mm. Wing-length 4.5 mm. Head-height 1.3 mm. Head. Eye dark brown, without ommatrichia. Facets on inner side of eye slightly enlarged. Ocelli whitish yellow. Ocellar tubercle black, with 1 pair of inconspicuous ocellar setae. Ocellar triangle occupies almost the entire frons and reaches as far as antennae (Fig. 93). Ocellar triangle brown, black at the upper lateral margin. Frons black lateral to ocellar triangle, with 2 proclinate fronto-orbital setae. Scape whitish yellow, pedicel and basal flagellomere brown. Antenna yellowish brown, basal flagellomere dark dorsally. Arista situated anterodorsally on basal flagellomere, three-segmented, black to dark brown (Fig. 92). Scape with a few black setulae anterodorsally. Pedicel with black setulae anterodorsally and anteroventrally. Shape of antenna as illustrated in Fig. 92. One distinct black vertical seta. Face pale yellow, silver pruinose. Postcranium black, distinctly silver pruinose. Postcranium with a line of regularly-arranged small white setulae dorsally, and several long white hairs ventrally at the mouth opening. Proboscis mainly brown to black, except for yellowish brown distal division of labellum and whitish yellow base of proboscis. Labrum ca 2.4 mm, labellum approximately the same length. Thorax. Yellowish brown to light brown, with scutum, scutellum and mediotergite dark brown. Almost all setae black. 2 long notopleural setae, 1 strong supra-alar seta, 2 strong postalar setae, 1 prescutellar dorsocentral seta, 1 apical scutellar seta, 1 strong seta on anepimeron and 1 golden seta above fore coxa on propleuron. Inconspicious black to brown semi-adpressed hairs on scutum. Wing generally clothed in microtrichia, but base of bc, base of br, bm, base of dm and cup all virtually without microtrichia. Hind margin of wing with brown setulae. Venation as in Fig. 96. Haltere yellowish brown, distal part light brown. Legs whitish yellow, with brown hind femur. Hind femur medially with a yellowish brown ring. Legs with black and brown setae, except fore tibia mainly with white setulae, fore femur anteriorly and ventrally with white setulae, and middle tibia ventrally with white setulae. All coxae with 1–3 large black setae. Hind trochanter without an obvious triangular tooth. Mid femur posteriorly in distal half with a row of regularly-arranged black setulae curved at their apices, and ventral side of mid femur with long black setulae that are longer than the diameter of the hind tibia. Hind femur posteroventrally with long hairs along whole length, longer than the diameter of the basal hind tibia. All tibiae lacking conspicuous setulae. Hind tibia with short black spines on anterior surface. Claws brown basally, black distally. Pulvilli yellow. Empodia short, pale brown. Abdomen. Orange-brown, with tergite 1 brown, tergites 2–4 with a broad brown midstripe that widens at the posterior margin, tergite 5 with a broad midstripe that does not widen, and tergite 6 brown. Tergites with semiadpressed black setulae, and longer setulae laterally on tergite 5. Tergite 1 with long yellowish white setulae laterally, tergite 2 with black setae on either side of anterior margin. Terminalia as illustrated in Figs 97–102. Cercus short, not widened laterally. Black spines present at base of cercus and on basal junction of cerci. Surstylus as shown in Figs 99–100, with two black teeth distally. No field of setulae on inner surface, but a few scattered black setulae. Phallus sheath as illustrated in Fig. 101, not protruding and without any spines or obvious hairs except anteroventrally with a few small erect hairs.
Female unknown.
Etymology. The species is dedicated to Ren Edmond Malaise (1892–1978), who invented the Malaise trap. Almost all of the 25 endemic Stylogaster species from Madagascar have been caught using Malaise traps.
Discussion. Stylogaster malaisei is an inconspicious species with characters which overlap with those of several other species, and none which are unique. In the key of Stuke (2012) this species will be identified as Stylogaster acanthocercus on the basis of: basal flagellomere moderately elongated, with dorsal arista (Fig. 92), ocellar triangle parallel sided and reaching to base of antennae (Fig. 93); hind tibia with only black hairs; mid femur with long erect ventral hairs (Fig. 94); hind femur with long setulae for almost the whole length (Fig. 95); and frons black lateral to ocellar triangle (Fig. 93). Stylogaster acanthocercus is easily distinguished from Stylogaster malaisei, however, by the shorter basal flagellomere (Stuke 2012: 276, Fig. 15), the obvious black tooth on the cercus and the lack of black teeth on the surstylus (Stuke 2012: 277, Figs 18–21). Stylogaster malaisei falls with a group which has a black scutum; a hypandrial sheath without obvious black bristles and only minute hairs (Fig. 101); long black bristles at the dorsal base of the cercus (Fig. 98) and at the basal junction of the cerci; and two black teeth apically on the surstylus (Figs 99–100). Only Stylogaster fanjae Stuke, 2012, Stylogaster pseudofanjae Stuke, 2012 and Stylogaster schachti Stuke, 2012 share this combination of characters, all four of which have a remarkably similiar postabdomen. From these species Stylogaster malaisei can be distinguished by the distribution of hairs on the legs, as described above, and the lack of a membrane attached to the ventral black teeth of the surstylus. The surstylus of Stylogaster fanjae is additionally distinguished by a triangular extension between the two black teeth (Stuke 2012: 291, Fig. 68). It is remarkable that all these four species share the character of a large basal flagellomere which is about twice as long as the pedicel and a black frons with a brown ocellar triangle. The similarity of these four species was previously overlooked because the species have different patterns of hairs on the legs, and using these characters they key out at very different positions in the key of Stuke (2012).
Distribution. Stylogaster malaisei is only known from the locus typicus in Madagascar.
description: Published as part of Stuke, Jens-Hermann, 2015, New Conopid records from the Afrotropical Region (Diptera). Part 1: Paramyopa Kröber, Pseudoconops Camras, Stylogaster Macquart, Thecophora Rondani, and Zodion Latreille, pp. 101-159 in Zootaxa 3963 (2) on pages 143-146, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3963.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/237609