Argentinomyia tropica
Creators: name: Montoya, Augusto L.
name: Wolff, Marta
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Argentinomyia
Argentinomyia tropica

description: Argentinomyia tropica (Curran, 1937)
(Figs 86, 87 and 91A)
Melanostoma tropicum Curran, 1937: 3. Type locality: Brazil. S„o Paulo, Campos do Jord „o. HOLOTYPE Male AMNH (Examined)
Melanostoma tropicum. Frey, 1946: 157
Rhysops tropicus. Thompson et al. 1976: 44
Argentinomyia tropica. Montoya 2016: 461
Argentinomyia tropica. Montoya et al. 2017: 395
Argentinomyia tropica. Marín-Armijos et al. 2017: 168
Argentinomyia tropica. Miranda, 2017 (Distributional record from the Brazilian Amazon)
Type material. HOLOTYPE. Adult Male, BRAZIL. S„o Paulo, Campos do Jard„o, 179 m, 23.i.1936, F. Lane (AMNH). PARATYPE. Adult Male. BRAZIL. Label same data as Holotype (AMNH).
Length (n= 4): Body, 8.6–10.1 mm; Wings, 8.6–9.0 mm.
Diagnosis. Face less produced ventrally, the sides thickly coated with cinereous yellow pollen; legs reddish, metafemur brown, only reddish or yellowish on basal 1/2, metatibia yellow on basal and apical 1/4; abdomen with three pairs of reddish maculae, on 3 rd and 4 th terga extending from the base to apical 1/4 and 1/3; surstylus with dorsal margin slightly concave and ventral margin slightly convex, shorter than broad; aedeagal lobe oval, apex rounded.
Redescription. MALE. Head (Fig. 86A): Face less produced ventrally, tubercle low but distinct, narrowly separated from the oral anterior margin; sides of face thickly cinereous yellow pollinose, the median 1/5 shining black and not at all ridged or grooved, pile pale yellowish. Gena cinereous shining with thin, more whitish pollen, pile white. Ocellar triangle brownish-yellow pollinose with a shining, roughened area dorsal the antennae, pile black; vertical triangle thinly brownish pollinose and blackish pilose. Occiput cinereous pollinose, pile whitish, the dorsal occipital cilia fine and black. Antennae reddish, short, ratio 1.4:1.2:1.5, basoflagellomere brown dorsal and apically; basoflagellomere 1/2 longer than broad as long as the scape and pedicel. Antennae reaching to a little ventral the middle of face; arista brown, pilose. Thorax (Figs 86B–C): Aeneous, mesonotum shining, yellow pilose; with a pair of very broad, narrowly separated pale pollinose vittae in the middle on anterior half and some lights with thin brownish pollen. Pleura thinly grayish-brown pollinose, yellow pilose. Scutellum shining, with long yellowish to black hairs, with a few shorter yellow hairs intermixed; fringe long and yellow. Wing (Fig. 86C): Cinereous hyaline with orange-yellow tinge, stigma orange-yellow; microtrichose, except cell c bare basal 1/5, cells bm, r and cua bare on basal 1/3; calypter wholly white-yellowish. Legs (Fig. 86C): Reddish to orange, pro- and mesolegs yellow; metafemur brown, except reddish on almost the basal 1/2, pile reddish, black on brown portions and apical segments of tarsus. Abdomen (Fig. 86B): Long and slightly spatulate, being narrowest at the end of the 2 nd tergum and widest at the end of 3 rd; black with three pairs of reddish maculae shining with the sides and anterior border obscurely reddish, on 2 nd tergum opaque black with the lateral 1/6 reddish, on 3 rd tergum opaque black with maculae extending from the base to the apical 1/4, gently tapering posteriorly and broadly separated from the lateral margins by a sub-shining vitta; maculae on 4 th tergum extend to the apical 1/3 and the posterior margin is broadly subshining; 5 th tergum very short and wholly shining; pile short and black, long and yellowish on sides of 1 st and 2 nd and basal 1/2 of 3 rd tergum; sterna metallic brownish red with black pile; genitalia brownish-red and with thin yellowish-brown pollen; male genitalia: surstylus in lateral view (Fig. 87A) with dorsal margin slightly concave and ventral margin slightly convex, shorter than broad; hypandrium in ventral view (Fig. 87C) narrowed laterally towards the apex; aedeagal lobe in ventral view (Fig. 87C) oval, apex rounded.
FEMALE (Figs 86D–F). Similar to male except for usual sexual dimorphism and differing in frontal triangle blue-black with a broad transverse golden pollinose band in the depression, black pilose, 5 th tergum includes a pair of fasciate maculae. Female of A. tropica is similar to A. luculenta differing in the face more perpendicular and less produced below. Frontal triangle blue-black with a broad transverse golden pollinose band in the depression, black pilose. Thorax with short yellowish pile, on a background of thin brownish pollen.
Taxonomic notes. Argentinomyia tropica is a black species, face less produced ventrally, the sides thickly coated with cinereous yellow pollen (Figs 86A, C, D, F); legs reddish, metafemur brown, only reddish or yellowish on basal 1/2, metatibia yellow on basal and apical 1/4 (Figs 86A, C, D, F); abdomen with three pairs of reddish maculae, on 3 rd and 4 th terga extending from the base to apical 1/4 and 1/3 (Figs 86B, E). In A. luculenta the face is more perpendicular and less produced ventrally; frontal triangle blue-black with a broad transverse golden pollinose band in the depression, pile black (Figs 47A, C, D, F); the pile of thorax short and yellowish on a background of thin brownish pollen (Figs 47B, E); metafemur yellow on basal 1/2 (Figs 47A, C, D, F); abdominal maculae rectangular (Figs 47B, E), slightly similar to the female of A. tropica, except on 3 rd and 4 th terga, where they reach apical 1/3 and 1/2 (Figs 47E), respectively. Based on males, A. tropica differs from A. luculenta in having the aedeagal lobe in ventral view (Fig. 87C) oval, with apex rounded [versus aedeagal lobe with apex acute in A. luculenta (Fig. 48C)] (see “diagnosis” under each species or key).
Comments. The Holotype specimen of M. tropicum is currently in the AMNH. Photos are available on their website AMNH: https://sci-web-001.amnh.org/imulive/iz.html?#details=ecatalogue.10020983.
Biology. Label data and field observations suggest that A. tropica visits flowers of Libanothamnus humbertii (Asteraceae).
Geographical range. Argentinomyia tropica (n= 50) is distributed in Argentina (Tucumán), Serra da Mantiqueira and Serra Paranapiacaba in Brazil (Brazilian Amazon, Sao Paulo, Paraná), Eastern slope of West and Eastern Cordilleras in Colombia * (Antioquia), both slopes of Central Cordillera in Colombia and Ecuador * (Tungurahua) and Cordillera de Mérida in Venezuela * (Merida) (Fig. 91A). The species is present at low, middle and high altitudes (179–3600 m) in the following biogeographical domains and provinces: Northern Andes (231–3600 m): Cauca (3600 m), Guajira (3500 m), Magdalena (2034–3150 m), North Andean Páramo (2300 m), Sabana (231 m); Paraná (179–1274 m): Araucaria Forest (867–1274 m), Atlantic Forest (179–761 m), Paraná Forest (826 m); Chacoan: Chaco (526–1426 m).
Non-type material examined. ARGENTINA. Tucumán, Burruyacu, Quebrada La Toma de Tafí Viejo, -26.499425, -64.741942, 526 m, 21.xii.1950, R.A. Golbach (3♁, WIRC); Same data, except: Villa Nougués, - 26.849763, -65.382689, 1426 m, i.1929, R.K. (2♀, WIRC). BRAZIL. Paraná, Ponta Grossa, -25.187256, - 50.143897, 867 m, ix.1945, P. Machado (1♀, WIRC). São Paulo, Campos do Jord „o, 22.742928, -45.596348, 761 m, 10.i.1936, F. Lane (2♁, 1♀, WIRC); Ribeirao Grande, Fazenda Intermontes, -24.197324, -48.424401, 826 m, 6.iv.2006, S. B. Vosgueritchian (1♀, CEUFLA). COLOMBIA. Antioquia, Andes, Santa Rita, Páramo de Santa Rita, 5,549 9389, -75,9912444, 3600 m, Net, 5.xii.2009, M. Wolff (1♀, CEUA 69642); Van Someren-Rydon (VSR) Fish, 12.viii.2010, GEUA (1♀, CEUA 87052); Belmira, Páramo Santa Inés Belmira, 6,647 5556, -75,6713333, 3150 m, Net, 1.x.2011, N. Uribe (1♁, CEUA 93084); Bello, San Félix, Las Baldías, 6,330 58, -75,645620, 3150 m, Net, 16.viii.2015, A.L. Montoya (2♀, CEUA 93082-83); …, 17.ii.2013 (1♀, CEUA 93135); Girardota, Vereda La Honda, 6,347 375, -75,4359944, 2034 m, Net, 26.ix.2009, N. Uribe (2♀, CEUA 69474–75); …, Vereda El Palmar, Secondary Forest, 6,343 502, -75,435102, 2200 m, Van Someren-Rydon (VSR) Víscera, 23.vii.2009, N. Uribe; G. Valencia (1♀, CEUA 47457); Guarne, Vereda Piedras Blancas, Parque Ecológico Piedras Blancas, cerca de quebrada, 6,291 588, -75,493345, 2200 m, Net, 5.v.2009, A.L. Montoya (1♀, CEUA 47449); Medellín, Santa Elena, Parque Ecológico Piedras Blancas, 6,295 895, -75,499891, 2470 m, Net, 15.ii.2009, A.L. Montoya (1♀, CEUA 47449); San José de la Montaña, Vereda El Congo, Sector La Laguna, 6,763 791, -75,701738, 3117 m, Páramo, Net, 21- 30.vi-5.iv.2017, A. L. Montoya; A. F. Sepúlveda (2♀, CEUA 98096, 98113); Sonsón, Vereda Nori, Cerro Nori, 5,809 667, -75,269028, 2853 m, Forest, Malaise canopy, 31.iii-7.iv.2018, A.L. Montoya; J. P. Carmona (1♀, CEUA 103433). Caquetá, Florencia, Las Brisas, 1,753 889, -75,747639, 2040 m, Malaise, Bosque Piso, 3er Túnel C 8, 1- 15.ii.2017, Y. Ramos-Pastrana (7#m, LEUA). ECUADOR. Tungurahua, Baños, -1.396949, -78.421669, 2300 m, 21.vii.1939, W. C. MacIntyre (1♁, AMNH). VENEZUELA. Mérida, Páramo Mucubaji, Laguna Negra, 8,797 016, -70,828651, 3500 m, ex flowers of Libanothamnus humbertii (89V27) 28-31.x.1989, A.L. Norrbom (1♀, USNM ENT).
description: Published as part of Montoya, Augusto L. & Wolff, Marta, 2023, Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical genus Argentinomyia Lynch-Arribálzaga, 1891 (Diptera: Syrphidae), with description of 16 new species, pp. 1-157 in Zootaxa 5234 (1) on pages 138-140, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5234.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7609993