Frutillaria stenoptera Richards
Creators: name: Kits, Joel H.
name: Marshall, Stephen A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Sphaeroceridae
Frutillaria
Frutillaria stenoptera

description: Frutillaria stenoptera Richards
(Figs. 43–46, 86, 87, 92, 114)
Frutillaria stenoptera Richards, 1961: 67
Description. Length 1.8–2.3 mm (head + thorax 0.8–1.0 mm)
Occiput black, face orange to brown, gena and frons intermediately coloured. Frons with shiny spots lateral to ocellar triangle. Scape and first flagellomere orange, pedicel dark brown. Clypeus mostly yellow, prementum dark brown.
Thorax black, postalar callus may be slightly reddish, wing rudiment brown. Mesoscutum and scutellum entirely covered with microtomentum. Anepisternum mostly shiny, anterior and posterior margins and part of dorsal margin with microtomentum. Katepisternum with a shiny spot behind coxa, not extending toward bristle; posterior part below bristle, meron and metapleuron shiny with exception of a stripe of microtomentum between posterior thoracic spiracle and base of hind coxa. Laterotergite mostly shiny.
Legs black, joints narrowly orange, tarsi and trochanters orange, fore coxa black; fore femur with a bare patch posteriorly. Mid femur with 2–3 anterior bristles.
Male abdomen (Figs. 43–46): Tergites 1–5 covered with microtomentum, shiny along margins. Sternites 2–5 shiny. A ring-shaped sclerite present on right side between segment 5 and the epandrium. Surstylus with a broad basal part and narrow inner arm; outer corner broadly produced, inner arm somewhat clubbed at tip; in posterior view, inner arm appears to be projecting ventrally and clearly separate from lateral edge of surstylus. Postgonite bilobed, anterior lobe short and feebly bilobed again, posterior lobe long. Epiphallus moderately developed, laterally broadened; preepiphallus well-developed. Distiphallus with lateral arms extending broadly from ventral sclerite, narrow at tip and barely projecting past central projecting sclerite; apicoventral discs present, slightly asymmetrical; central projecting sclerite with dorsally-oriented teeth; ventral sacs rigid, somewhat sclerotized, extending perpendicularly.
Female abdomen (Figs. 86, 87, 92): Tergites 1–5 mostly covered with microtomentum, margins shiny. Sternites 2–4 shiny, sternite 5 mostly shiny with some sparse microtomentum. Tergite 6 and sternite 6 mostly microtomentose. Tergite 8 complete, with about 8 setae along posterior margin; mostly shiny, some microtomentum along posterior margin. Epiproct parallel-sided with long anterior arms. Sclerites of sternite 8 long and rectangular; hypoproct with 2 weakly sclerotized lateral disks. Spermathecae with long, mushroom-shaped apical invagination, short basal invagination, both annulated.
Type material. Holotype 3: CHILE: [Los Lagos:] Llanquihue Prov., Frutillar, 41º12’ S, 12 Sep 1954, [G. Kuschel] (MEUC, apparently lost).
Other material examined. ARGENTINA: Neuquén: Lanín Natl. Pk., rd. between Pucara and Lago Venados, 24–25 Jan, 1972, L. Herman (1 3, 1 Ƥ, AMNH). CHILE: Los Lagos: Vicente Pérez Rosales Natl. Pk., Volcán Osorno rd., 41°10’S 72°31'W, 300m, dung pans, 2 Dec 2008, Kits & Marshall (11 3, 10 Ƥ, DEBU), same data but carrion pans (9 3, 3 Ƥ, DEBU); Puyehue Natl. Pk., Anticura, tr. to Mirador El Puma, 40°40.35’S 72°10.18’W, 400 m, carrion pans, 3–5 Dec 2008, Kits & Marshall (2 3, DEBU), same data but stream, dung pans, 4–5 Dec 2008 (3 3, DEBU); Puyehue Natl. Pk., Ruta 215, km 4.5 E of Aduana station, 40°40'14"S 72°05'13"W, 580 m, Valdivian rainforest, FMHD #2002-090, berlese, leaf & log litter, 19 Dec 2002, Thayer et al. (1 3, FMNH); Puaucho (15.1 km W), 40°35'00"S 73°37'42"W, 50 m, Valdivian rainforest remnant in sm. ravine, w/large ferns, FMHD #96-249, berlese, litter under large ferns, 30 Dec 1996, A.F. Newton & M.K. Thayer (2 Ƥ, FMNH); Araucanía: Chacamo, NW Nueva Imperial, 600–700 m, 17–23 Feb 1981, L. Peña (1 3, USNM); Purén, Contulmo Natur. Mon., 350 m, mixed forest litter, FMHD #85-1001, Berlese, 13 Feb 1985, S. & J. Peck (10 3, 3 Ƥ, FMNH); Contulmo Natur. Mon., Sendero Lemu Mau, 38°00'44"S 073°11'08"W, 410 m, Nothofagus obliqua -Eucryphia cordifolia ++ w/ fern & bamboo understory, FMHD #2002-064, flood debris, small stream, 8 Dec 2002, A.F. Newton & A. Y. Solodovnikov (3 3, 2 Ƥ, FMNH).
Comments. Although there are no extant type specimens of this species, the species we treat here as F. stenoptera is a good match to the original description and illustration, and we are confident it is correctly identified. The following points support our identification of this species as F. stenoptera: the illustration shows a species with 3 distal lobes on the distiphallus, all projecting to a similar degree: these presumably correspond to the pointed lateral arms (Richards’ “paraphalli”), the central projecting sclerite, and the ventroapical discs. The sclerotized and projecting ventral sacs of this species correspond to Richards’ “lateral wings of the aedeagus”, which are stated to be long and illustrated as projecting perpendicularly. The surstylus is stated to have the outer corner “angularly produced” and inner arm short and knobbed at tip; our specimens do not have the outer corner particularly angular, but this is influenced by viewing angle, and they match the illustration fairly well. The anterior lobe of the postgonites (Richards’ “anterior gonapophyses”) are not shown in the original illustration but Richards states they are “apparently reduced”; as this lobe is fairly short in this species, he may not have been able to see the shape in any detail in a partial dissection.
This is the only species of Frutillaria known to occur in Argentina, although additional species may occur in that country in moist forests near the Chilean border.
description: Published as part of Kits, Joel H. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2011, A revision of Frutillaria Richards and Penola Richards (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae: Archiborborinae), pp. 1-34 in Zootaxa 2863 on pages 21-22, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.203208