Brachypogon (Isohelea) freidbergi Dominiak, Alwin & Giłka, 2014, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Dominiak, Patrycja
name: Alwin, Alicja
name: Giłka, Wojciech
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Ceratopogonidae
Brachypogon
Brachypogon freidbergi

description: Brachypogon (Isohelea) freidbergi sp. nov.
(Figures 1, 2)
Type material. Holotype: adult male. ISRAEL, ‘Enot Samar, 22.IV.1998, leg. A. Freidberg (TAU).
Diagnosis. The male of Brachypogon freidbergi is distinct in having elongate slender apicolateral processes of tergite 9, and a deeply forked Y-shaped gonostylus that resembles obtuse crayfish claws. Females are unknown.
Description. Male. Coloration. Body dark, with distal halves of tibiae and tarsomeres 1–4 paler (Fig. 1 c).
Head. Eyes pubescent, widely separated. Antenna with 13 flagellomeres, plume well-developed; total flagellum length 0.44 mm; flagellomere 1 with two whorls of long setae and two sensilla coeloconica; flagellomeres 2–11 fused, but with well defined anterior and posterior margins. Third palpal segment with small apical sensory pit; length 46 Μm, PR 2.42. Fourth palpal segment bearing 2 long setae.
Thorax. Katepisternum with single seta; anepisternum bare. Transverse suture on scutum well-developed, 1 anterior and 5 posterior supraalar setae present. Scutellum with 4 large setae. Wing (Fig. 1 a) membrane hyaline, lacking macrotrichia; two very small radial cells present (Fig. 1 b), r1 slit-like, r2 narrow; wing veins slightly infuscated, darkest on well-defined stigma; vein M2 absent; Cu1, Cu2 obsolete on distal halves; wing length 0.75 mm; CR 0.50. Femora and tibiae of mid legs slender, those of fore and hind (Fig. 1 c) legs slightly broader. Hind tibia with comb composed of 6 large setae, slender and moderately long apical spur, and basitarsus bearing single row of dense palisade setae (Fig. 1 d). Tarsomere 4 (Fig. 1 e) subcylindrical, bearing 1–2 long apical sinuous sensilla capitata; tarsomere 5 of all legs with small, equal-sized claws, lacking inner teeth, each with single long basal seta at base and with bifid apex; slender empodia present. Fore, mid and hind tarsal ratios: TR I 1.7, TR II 1.6, TR III 2.1.
Genitalia (Fig. 2 a). Tergite 9 tapering abruptly distally, with pair of slender elongate apicolateral processes, each bearing single subapical seta; ventrodistal portion with large, heavily sclerotized, semicircular proctiger. Sternite 9 moderately short, about 2.5 times broader than long, posterior margin nearly straight. Gonocoxite stout, broadest near base. Gonostylus (Fig. 2 b) short, broad, deeply bifurcate, Y-shaped; both branches of similar length, pointed apically, inner branch bearing several long setae. Parameres (Fig. 2 c) fused, slightly shorter than aedeagus; basal apodemes, lateral margins and apex well sclerotized, mid portion more lightly sclerotized; apex bifid, each half with pointed tip. Aedeagus stout, with low basal arch and bilobed apex, well sclerotized, especially in basal half (Fig. 2 d).
Female and immatures. Unknown.
Derivation of the name. This species is named after Amnon Freidberg, who kindly loaned us the collection of biting midges from Israel.
Remarks. The unusual, deeply bifurcate, Y-shaped gonostylus and the long finger-like apicolateral processes in male genitalia of Brachypogon freidbergi are unique among all other extant species of the subgenus Isohelea. The latter character is found only in B. prominulus (Meunier, 1904), the species known from Eocene Baltic amber. The shape of the aedeagus and the sclerotized ventrodistal region of tergite 9 of this new species are similar to those of B. hugoi Spinelli & Grogan, 1994 from the Neotropics. Similar parameres, which are completely fused basally and divided in apical half, are known in B. sociabilis (Goetghebuer, 1920), the widely distributed European species.
description: Published as part of Dominiak, Patrycja, Alwin, Alicja & Giłka, Wojciech, 2014, New records of predaceous midges from the Middle East, with the description of two new species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), pp. 133-145 in Zootaxa 3753 (2) on pages 135-137, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3753.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/227557