Sclerocoelus turpis Kuwahara, Marshall & Paiero, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kuwahara, Gregory K.
name: Marshall, Stephen A.
name: Paiero, Steven M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sphaeroceridae
Sclerocoelus
Sclerocoelus turpis

description: Sclerocoelus turpis sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 84BB36C0-7310-4F70-AD35-37F5A6D8E235
Figs 9G, 142–143
Etymology
This name refers to the water conditions in the area this species was collected from, as well as the locality itself (Poço Feio = Ugly Well) (from the Latin ‘ turpis ’, meaning ‘ugly, filthy, unsightly’).
Material examined
Holotype
BRAZIL • ♂; Rio de Janeiro, Nova Friburgo, Lumiar, Poço Feio; 26 Jan. 1990; S.A. Marshall leg.; sweep near falls (dirty); MZSP.
Description
BODY (Fig. 142A). Length 2.6 mm. Head dark brown, most of frons orange; face, gena, and antenna yellow-brown. Frontal width 2.2–2.3× frontal height. Three pairs of strong interfrontal bristles surmounting a fine fourth pair; anterior orbital 0.6× length of posterior. Palpus yellow. Eye slightly reduced, greatest height about 2.5 × shortest genal height. Thorax dark brown, scutum with paler lateral edges. Two pairs of dorsocentral bristles (anterior pair 0.4 × length of posterior pair) separated by 7–8 rows of acrostichal setulae. Prescutellar acrostichals very large. Membrane around prosternum bare. Legs yellow, hind leg reddish. Fore femur with three large ventral preapical setae. Ventral surface of male mid tibia with two rows of stout setae in apical third. Wing (Fig. 9G) slightly infuscate. CS2 0.7–0.8 × CS3. Halter pale brown.
MALE ABDOMEN (Figs 142B–C, 143). Dark brown, posterior edges of tergites sometimes slightly desclerotized.T2–5 and S2–4 uniformly long-setose with large posterolateral setae. S5 broad, rectangular, 1.2× length of S4, posterolaterally long-setose and with a large medial setulose patch. Anterior flange of S6+7 not developed. Sclerite A setulose, indistinct from S6+7; sclerite B weakly developed; sclerite C short, bulging and fused to S6+7; sclerite D dark, elongate, and articulating with left side of sclerite F; sclerite E dark, broad; sclerites F and G fused, large, slightly twisted along right side; ring sclerite thin but well developed. Epandrium large, 0.6 × length of S8, height 1.7 × maximum length and 0.7× maximum width, uniformly setose; anal fissure triangular and relatively narrow; perianal pads bulging but membranous. Pseudocercus absent; halves of subepandrial sclerite thin and transverse, fused medially and arched with two small ventral lobes where it articulates with subcercus. Subcercus short, subtriangular with an elongate posterior lobe curving inwards and a triangular dorsal lobe that articulates with subepandrial sclerite. Hypandrium with long, sinuate anteromedial apodeme. Surstylus very large and broad, twice as long as deep, concave, with dense setae on inner and outer surfaces and a small, triangular, inner anterobasal lobe. Postgonite short, slender with a small sub-basal anterior lobe and apex flattened and curved inwards. Phallapodeme large, curved; basiphallus with an elongate epiphallus and distally expanded along dorsal margin of distiphallus; distiphallus largely membranous with a pair of long, narrow, sinuate lateral sclerites and a smaller, broader, sinuate posteroventral sclerite.
FEMALE ABDOMEN. Female unknown.
Distribution
Neotropical: Brazil.
Remarks
Several features, including mitt-like surstyli, strongly modified epiphallus with lateral lobes and the medially fused subcerci, suggest a close relationship to S. dominicensis sp. nov., S. irregularis sp. nov., S. pararegularis sp. nov., and S. regularis. Sclerocoelus turpis sp. nov. differs by the very large setulose patch on the male S5, transverse genital pouch sclerite F+G, and apically flattened postgonite. Sclerocoelus turpis is known from a single male collected in a disturbed riparian habitat in the Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil.
description: Published as part of Kuwahara, Gregory K., Marshall, Stephen A. & Paiero, Steven M., 2025, A revision of the genus Sclerocoelus Marshall (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae), pp. 1-277 in European Journal of Taxonomy 979 on pages 117-118, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2025.979.2803, http://zenodo.org/record/14980852