Paropesia Mesnil 1970
Creators: name: Shima, Hiroshi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tachinidae
Paropesia

description: Paropesia Mesnil, 1970
Paropesia Mesnil, 1970: 120. Type species: Paropesia nigra Mesnil, 1970, by original designation.
Male & female. Head: Eye bare; parafacial bare; face rather well excavated, lower margin warped forward and well extending beyond base of vibrissa; gena at most 1/3 of eye height, genal dilation broad, with rather strong black hairs; occiput convex; inner vertical seta strong in male and female, outer vertical seta absent in male, developed in female; 1–2 inner vertical setae in male, 1 outwardly directed prevertical and 2 strong proclinate orbital setae in female; ocellar seta fine; occiput with 1–3 rows of fine black hairs and dense whitish pile; 2 fine postocellar setae and 1 postvertical seta. Base of antenna nearly level with middle of eye height, pedicel with a strong hair which is about 2 times as long as pedicel; 1st flagellomere more than 3 times as long as pedicel; arista almost bare. Prementum short, at most 1/2 as long as eye height; labella large; palpus slender, weakly swollen near apex.
Thorax: Prosternum and proepisternum bare, proepisternal seta strong; postpronotal lobe with 5 setae, 3 basal setae set in a triangle; 2 presutural and 3 postsutural acrostichal setae; 3 presutural and 3 postsutural dorsocentral setae; 0 presutural and 2 postsutural intra-alar setae, anterior seta nearly level with anterior postsutural dorsocentral seta or slightly ahead and posterior seta level with or slightly behind level of second postsutural dorsocentral seta; 3 supra-alar setae, anterior seta shorter than anterior postsutural intra-alar seta; 3 katepisternal setae; anepimeral seta weak but developed, at most extending back beyond posterior margin of upper calypter; katepimeron bare; anatergite with several fine short hairs; posterior spiracle large, longer than katepimeron, with yellowish crescentformed anterior and operculum-like posterior lappets; scutellum with 3 pairs of strong marginal setae and a pair of fine discal setae. Wing with costa bare above, first, second and basal 1/2 of 3rd costal sectors setulose below; costal spine present; wing veins bare except basal node of vein R4+5 which bears an isolated setula dorsally. Legs stout; fore tibia with 2 preapical dorsal setae, anterodorsal seta absent, and 1 apical posteroventral seta; mid tibia without ventral seta in male, with a strong seta in female; hind tibia with 1 apical anteroventral seta, without apical posteroventral seta; male claws and pulvilli very long, nearly as long as 4th and 5th tarsomeres together, at most as long as 5th tarsomere in female.
Abdomen long ovate; syntergite 1+2 excavated to at most basal 1/2; 3rd to 5th tergites subequal in length; abdominal sternites usually exposed in male.
Male terminalia: 5th sternite variable, rectangular, long rectangular or rounded apically, median cleft Ushaped, Y-shaped or very narrow with a long slit; 6th tergite entire, free from syntergosternite 7+8, with hairs; 6th sternite very narrow, nearly symmetrical; anteroventral corner of epandrium well expanded, posterodorsal corner not developed as a process; bacilliform sclerite very small or indistinct; cerci stout, well separated on apical 1/2; hypandrium flat; pregonite rod-like, closely associated with rod-like postgonite; phallus elongate, apex widened; aedeagal apodeme long, no phallic guide (intermedium); ejaculatory apodeme large, fan-shaped in dorsal view.
Female terminalia: 6th tergite entire, with strong hairs on posterior margin; 6th sternite long, almost 3 times as long as 6th tergite, anterior 1/2–1/3 invaginated, with dense short hairs, posteromedian portion roundly produced, bearing many minute wart-like protrusions; 7th tergite entire, shorter than 6th tergite, with fine hairs posterolaterally; 7th sternite large, well produced posteriorly, semi-circular or rectangular in posterior view, with dense fine hairs; membrane behind 7th tergite roundly or triangularly produced dorsally, bearing dense microvilli; 8th tergite of quadrate hemitergites or absent; 8th sternite strongly curved ventrally near middle and narrowed posteriorly as a piercer, with mid dorsal groove; epiproct rather large.
Remarks. The genus Paropesia is similar to Parerigone in the external characters. It is distinguished from the latter by the bare eye and 1–3 rows of black hairs on the occiput. Paropesia lacks yellowish hairs on the thorax and abdomen, is missing the ventral seta on the mid tibia in the male, and has only three pairs of marginal scutellar setae, whereas these characters are variable among species of Parerigone. In the male terminalia the fundamental structure is the same in both genera: 6th tergite entire and free from syntergosternite 7+8 (Figs. 12, 25), rod-like pregonite and postgonite closely associated with each other, and phallus elongate with apex expanded (Figs. 8, 21, 29). However, in Paropesia the median cleft of the male 5th abdominal sternite is not wide (Figs. 11, 24, 32), the cerci are broadly separated on posterior half, and the phallus is cylindrical and more broadly sclerotized, whereas in Parerigone the median cleft of 5th sternite is very wide, the cerci are at most only a little separated, and the phallus is broadly membranous. In the female terminalia Paropesia is different from Parerigone in having a very long and invaginated 6th sternite, very stout and posteriorly flattened 7th sternite, well developed epiproct, and a balloonshaped or triangularly expanded membranous lobe with microvilli behind 7th tergite (Figs. 13, 14, 16, 17, 33, 34). The function of this last structure is unknown, but it is a peculiar feature of the known species of this genus.
Paropesia also resembles another Oriental parerigonine genus, Zambesomima Mesnil, in its bare eye, fine ocellar setae and female piercing ovipositor (8th abdominal sternite), but differs from the latter in its black hairs on the occiput (only whitish hairs in Zambesomima), three pairs of scutellar setae (of which apical pair are strong and crossed; 4 pairs and apical setae absent in Zambesomima) and male always lacking ventral seta on the mid tibia (male with ventral seta in Zambesomima, as in female of Paropesia). The male and female terminalia are similar in both genera: the hypandrium flattened, pregonite and postgonite rod-like and closely associated; phallus elongate. As mentioned above, Paropesia, Parerigone and Zambesomima resemble one another in the external structures including the male and female terminalia. They may be united in a monophyletic group in the Parerigonini as sharing a synapomorphic character state of a long rod-like pregonite closely associated with the postgonite. The Neotropical genus Neobrachelia Townsend appears to possess this character state (Tschorsnig 1985: fig. 144), whereas the Australasian genera of Parerigonini, such as Australotachina Curran, Leverella Baranov and Zita Curran, do not.
description: Published as part of Shima, Hiroshi, 2014, The parerigonine genus Paropesia Mesnil (Diptera, Tachinidae), with descriptions of three new species from East Asia, pp. 576-590 in Zootaxa 3827 (4) on pages 578-580, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3827.4.8, http://zenodo.org/record/230552