Empidideicus (Empidideicus) ferrarius Gharali, Evenhuis & Moghbeli 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gharali, Babak
name: Evenhuis, Neal L.
name: Moghbeli, Sajjad
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Mythicomyiidae
Empidideicus
Empidideicus ferrarius

description: Empidideicus (Empidideicus) ferrarius Gharali, Evenhuis & Moghbeli sp. nov.
(Figs 4, 5, 6a, c)
Types. Holotype male and 9 males and 52 females paratypes (one dissected from each sex), Jiroft: Narab village, 28°55'12.9" N, 57°31'49.4" E, 16 May 2022, S. Moghbeli. Holotype in HMIM; paratypes in HMIM and BG.
Diagnosis. Occiput black; frons yellow with a quadrate black mark bellow middle ocellus; scutellum yellow with two blackish spots basolaterally. Mesonotum black except interhumeral mark yellow, prescutellar area black; genital fork U-shaped; spermathecal reservoirs globular with shallow invagination.
Description. Male (Fig. 4c). Head (Figs. 4a, b): slightly longer than high; eyes dichoptic, separated at vertex by 1.6 times distance between lateral ocelli; occiput and postgena black; frons short, slightly depressed medially, with a quadrate black mark just below middle ocellus; face yellow, tip of oral margin tan to brown; antennae. scape short, subtrapezoidal; pedicel subconical, wider than long; first flagellomere lanceolate, length 1.9 times width; second flagellomere slightly less than one-half length of first flagellomere, with minute transparent apical style; mentum yellow; clypeus brown, as long as oral margin; proboscis dark brown to black, slightly shorter than head length; labrum sclerotized, stiff, pointed apically; palpus not evident.
Thorax (Fig. 4a). Mesonotum black; with two large interhumeral yellow marks; yellow dorsolaterally from humeral callus to post alar callus; yellow interhumeral marks coalesced with yellow humeral calli; scutellum yellow with two basolateral black marks; mesonotal disc and dorsum of scutellum with short fine black hairs; pleura bare, anepisternum brownish yellow, with dark brown pattern at anteroventral corner, katepisternum dark brown except upper margin narrowly light brown, anepimeron dark brown, meron blackish brown except upper margin yellow; halter stem yellow, knob white.
Legs. Coxae brown; femora brown; tibia and tarsal segments yellow.
Wing. Elongate, length 2.6 times width; subhyaline; veins brown; costa ends well beyond end of R 4+5; vein Sc incomplete; Rs faded basally at connection with R 1; R 4+5 slightly bowed at apical one-third; vein M 1 curved toward wing margin; M 2 straight; M 2 straight; M 4 straight; CuA slightly curved, reaching to wing margin; anal vein effaced, not reaching to wing margin; fringe of hair on posterior margin of wing well shortest at wing tip becoming longer and more sparse toward base.
Abdomen. Dorsum black, concolorous with mediotergite color; tergites II–VII predominantly black with white band along posterior margin, band becoming successively broader on successive segments; lateral margins broader white than posterior bands; sternites white; tergites with sparsely scattered minute black hairs.
Genitalia (Fig. 5). Hypopygium brownish. In ventral view gonocoxites subtrapezoidal, connected narrowly medially; with long pointed process inside and with W-shaped process at junction of gonocoxites; gonostyli semicircular with some hairs apically; lateral arms of parameral sheath extending to tip of basal aedeagal apodeme, slightly flared apically; aedeagal bulb large, rounded; lateral aedeagal apodeme slightly longer than lateral rami, basal aedeagal apodeme with two large, rectangular rami basally; epandrium in lateral view subrectangular with large pointed dorsolateral processes; cerci large, triangular in dorsal view.
Female (Fig. 4b): As in male. Genitalia (Fig. 6a, c): genital fork thin, U-shaped, lateral arms apically very sclerotized and with two inwardly oriented process; spermathecal reservoir subquadrate, sclerotized brown, invagination shallow; apical spermathecal duct shorter than basal ducts, thin, transparent; sperm pump about length of reservoir, slightly sclerotized, without evident valves apically or basally; basal duct thin, transparent, common duct absent.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from Latin word faber ferrarius and refers to the brilliant Kaveh the Blacksmith [= Kâve Âhangar in Persian] who leads a popular uprising against a ruthless ruler, Zahâk. His life history was written by the great, tenth century poet of Iran, Ferdowsi.
Distribution. Empidideicus (Empidideicus) ferrarius sp. nov. is known only from Jiroft vicinity. Jiroft city is famous as the greenhouse city of Iran.
Remarks. Moghbeli et al. (2020) prepared a key to all species of Empidideicus known from Iran. Empidideicus (Empidideicus) ferrarius sp. nov. runs in this key to E. (Empidideicus) persicus Gharali & Evenhuis, 2010 (in Gharali et al. 2010) described from northern Iran. However, this new species is easily distinguished from it by its black quadrate mark on frons (small black dot in E. (Empidideicus) persicus) and two basolateral black spots on scutellum (completely yellow in E. persicus). In Empidideicus (Empidideicus) ferrarius sp. nov. yellow interhumeral mark separated from yellow humeral callus by black pattern on mesonotum but in E. (Empidideicus) persicus they are coalescent.
The female genitalia of the two species have diagnostic differences including the shape of spermathecae and their invaginations, the status of sperm pump valve and the sclerotization status of the basal ducts (Figs. 6a, b).
Variability. Mesonotum in this species is completely black except two interhumeral marks that are yellow. This mark varies from large and significant in some specimens to very narrow and hardly noticeable in others so in dubious case checking the genitalia better to be done.
Note. Moghbeli et al. (2020) recently presented a key to the species of the genus Empidideicus from Iran but mistakenly keyed the species Empidideicus (E.) aurantiacus Gharali & Evenhuis, 2010 (in Gharali et al. 2010) as having a black lateral occiput (see couplet 1), although this species has yellow occiput laterally. We here provide an updated and corrected key to all species of the genus known from Iran.
description: Published as part of Gharali, Babak, Evenhuis, Neal L. & Moghbeli, Sajjad, 2025, Three new species of the genus Empidideicus Becker, 1907 (Diptera, Mythicomyiidae) from Iran with the first record of the subgenus Cyrtoides Engel, 1933, pp. 529-541 in Zootaxa 5604 (4) on pages 535-536, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5604.4.5, http://zenodo.org/record/15214128