Sarcophaga (Sarcorohdendorfia) confusio Geisler & Pape 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Geisler, Lucas
name: Pape, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sarcophagidae
Sarcophaga
Sarcophaga confusio

description: Sarcophaga (Sarcorohdendorfia) confusio sp. nov.
Figs 8–10
Type material: Holotype ♁: Bismarck Isl. New Britain / Yalom 1000 m. / 22. May 1962. / Noona Dan Exp. 61–62 // Slide / Nr. 10 // PARATYPE / Tricholioproctia / longestylata n.sp. / Paratypus ♁ / Det. H. S. Lopes. Abdomen dissected by Lopes (1967) through a complete detachment from the thorax followed by maceration. Segments 1–4 have been glued back onto the source specimen, while each of T5 and the terminalia exclusive of genitalia are glued to its own piece of cardboard pinned with the specimen. Genitalia and sternite 5 are mounted on a slide (probably in euparal), which is labelled: Tricholioproctia / longestylata n.sp. / Paratypus / Det. H. S. Lopes // Slide / Nr. 10. Pinned specimen and slide deposited in NHM-DK.
Type locality: Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, Yalom.
Other material: Two females are tentatively considered conspecific with the holotype, but as species concepts in Sarcophaga are strongly based on males, these are not included in the type material. 1♀: Bismarck Isl. New Britain / Yalom 1000 m. / 14. May 1962. / Noona Dan Exp. 61–62 // PARATYPE / Tricholioproctia / longestylata n.sp. / Paratypus ♀ / Det. H. S. Lopes. 1♀: Same data but 17. May 1962. Both in NHM-DK.
Etymology: From the Latin confusio = mixture, confusion, disorder. Named for the mixup or confusion involving the present holotype, which was included as a paratype in the nominal taxon Tricholioproctia longestylata Lopes [preoccupied; = S. stylata Pape] without being conspecific with the holotype. The name should be treated as a noun in apposition.
Description: Male—Head: Width of frons at narrowest point 0.11 x width of head (n = 1). Tomentum golden across entirety of head with greyish golden spot on the post-gena. Frontal setae strongest at vertex, with a very slight reduction in length towards the antennae, stretching past the lunule and all the way to the end of the fronto-orbital plate. Ocellar triangle with scattered setulae, ocellar setae weaker than frontal setae. Vertical setae not distinguishable from postocular setae. Antenna with black scape and pedicel, golden brown postpedicel with brownish arista. Palpus black. Vibrissa strong. Genal setae black, postgenal setae yellowish. Thorax: Yellow tomentum, less golden than on face; dorsally with three black stripes, middle stripe running from presutural scutum to approximately 0.65 of length of scutellum, lateral stripes running from presutural scutum to 0.8 of length of postsutural scutum. Prosternum bare. Chaetotaxy: acrostichals = 1+1, dorsocentrals = 2+4, intra-alars = 1+2, supra-alars = 1+4, postalars = 1, anterior postpronotal = 0, basal postpronotal = 3, basal scutellars = 1, discal scutellars = 0, subapical scutellars = 2, apical scutellars = 1. Legs: Black with greyish yellow area posteriorly on fore femur. Hind tibia with long and strong setosity along posterior surface. Wing: Veins brown with anal veins fading distally. Wing membrane hyaline, cells close to the base with yellow tint. Alula hyaline. Upper and lower calypter bright yellow. Vein R4+5 with dorsal setulae at base, cell r4+5 open at wing margin. Abdomen: Brownish with yellow tomentum leaving a narrow dark brown median stripe ending on T3. Median marginal setae present on T3 and T4. Posterior margin of ST4 with broad patch of tightly set, short, robust setae extending across the entire margin and almost level with the surrounding surface. Terminalia: Cercus distinctly and evenly curved, without particularly strong setae. Hypandrium with posterior margin unmodified. Pregonite with largely straight anterior and posterior margins, like a long triangle; postgonite almost rectangular but with a short, pointed tip at the posterior corner. Juxta abruptly terminated, with distal margin forming a fold, vesica gradually expanding apically and reaching level of tip of juxta, lateral stylus about twice as long as juxta and sclerotized to the tip.
Remarks: Lopes (1967) based his nominal taxon Tricholioproctia longestylata on a type series from the Bismarck Archipelago: the holotype, three male and four female paratypes from New Ireland, Lemkamin; and one male and two female paratypes from New Britain, Yalom. Lopes (1967: 160) mentioned that “Specimens from New Britain are somewhat less intensely golden than the flies from New Ireland ”, but he did not follow this up with a thorough comparison of male terminalia. He dissected and illustrated (Lopes 1967, fig. 38) the only male that was not from the same island as the holotype, while the holotype itself was left undissected [this now has its terminalia fully extended as part of the present study]. This type series is here considered to comprise two different species: Sarcophaga (Sarcorohdendorfia) stylata from New Ireland, Lemkamin, and S. (S.) confusio sp. n. from New Britain, Yalom.
The illustration of Lopes (1967, fig. 38) is an exact match with the slide-mounted genitalia of the holotype of S. (S.) confusio sp. n. with regard to overall orientation as well as in the shape of the vesica and juxta, both of which are very prone to distortions during dissection and slide-mounting, but there are differences in the position of the gonites and lateral styles (compare Figs 11 and 16). Lopes may have produced the illustration before he prepared the permanent slide-mount, or he may have edited his illustration to give the gonites and lateral styles a position more suitable for comparing these important diagnostic structures with figures of other species.
Sarcophaga confusio sp. n. and Sarcophaga stylata are morphologically very similar, and they are separated geographically only by the narrow Saint George’s Channel between New Britain and New Ireland. With several features of the external morphology as well as of the male terminalia ensuring an unambiguous separation, it is considered justified to treat the two island populations as different species.
description: Published as part of Geisler, Lucas & Pape, Thomas, 2023, Two new species of the ' Big Yellows' (Diptera: Sarcophagidae: Sarcophaga), pp. 190-202 in Zootaxa 5311 (2) on pages 193-194, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5311.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/8094188