Trichocera (Saltrichocera) latipons Podenas 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Petrašiūnas, Andrius
name: Podenas, Sigitas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Trichoceridae
Trichocera
Trichocera latipons

description: Trichocera (Saltrichocera) latipons sp. nov.
(Figs. 8, 26–30)
Diagnosis. Medium-sized species, body length 6–7 mm, wing length 7–8 mm. Body coloration brown. Antennal segments with short pubescence. Metepisternum bare or with single setae. Male terminalia with gonocoxal bridge low and very wide, with a membraneous ventral flange; both halves touching in the middle at a narrow point. Gonostylus slightly bent inwards, parallel-sided, without tubercle, apex rounded. Ninth sternite with a very slight indentation towards the middle (Figs. 26, 27).
Material examined (Fig. 33): Type specimens 6 males.
Holotype: male (in ethanol) Gyeonggi-do, Gapyeong-gun, Buk-myeon, Jeokmok-ri, Garimgyo (Br.) GREC, 25.10.2015 at light, 12 PM, coll. Y.- J. Bae (KU).
Paratypes: 5 males, topotypic (KU).
Description. General coloration brownish, slightly lighter on abdomen, darker on thorax. Antennae (Fig. 30). first flagellomere (f1) slender, about 1.3–1.5 times longer than second flagellomere (f2). Verticils not outstanding, slightly longer than general pubescence.
Thorax. Single seta on metepisternum observed in one paratype, otherwise pleura bare.
Wing (Fig. 8). Wings lightly brownish, not hyaline. Vein R2+3+4 is two to three times as long as R3+4. A2 bare, all other veins with setae on both sides.
Legs (Fig. 29). Male tarsal claw approximately twice as short as the fifth tarsomere.
Male terminalia (Figs. 26–28). Gonocoxal bridge low and wide, touching in the middle at a narrow point; ventrobasal lobe has membraneous flange along the inner margin. In two paratypes this lower flange is less sclerotized, better visible in lateral view. Gonostylus slightly bent inwards, parallel-sided, apex rounded. Basal tubercle absent. Ninth sternite medium wide, with a slight indentation towards the middle, with about 10 setae, longer ones reaching the gonocoxal bridge. In aedeagal complex parameres long, with hood hidden in between and only slightly visible in lateral view, aedeagal apodeme rather wide, rectangular, black. Lateral apodeme narrow and elongated.
Notes. The newly described species has similarities with several species from Europe, namely T. (S.) hirta Starý & Martinovský, 1996 and T. (S.) pubescens Starý & Martinovský, 1996. Also, those specimens of T. (S.) latipons, that have gonocoxal bridge with membraneous flange on ventrobasal lobe less sclerotized, look similar to Trichocera (Saltrichocera) nordica Krzemińska & Gorzka, 2014.
Contrary to T. (S.) hirta and T. (S.) pubescens, which have numerous long and rather stiff setae on both epimeron and metepisternum (Starý & Martinovský 1996), only one specimen of T. (S.) latipons has only single seta on metepisternum. Antennae of T. (S.) latipons reach the middle of the first abdominal segment and are not as long as in T. (S.) hirta and T. (S.) pubescens. T. (S.) latipons does not have elongate, erect verticils as in these other two species, though it’s antennae are generally pubescent. Wing vein R2+3+4 is two to three times as long as R3+ 4 in T. (S.) latipons, while in T. (S.) hirta and T. (S.) pubescens R2+3+4 is half as long or sub-equal in length to R2+3.
Male genitalic structures of T. (S.) hirta and T. (S.) latipons are similar in several aspects: the bridge is rather low, ventrobasal lobe has membraneous flange along inner margin, ninth sternite without deep excision and has setae all along posterior margin, lateral apodemes are narrow and elongated in both of these species. However, T. (S.) hirta has gonostylus conspicuously curved inwardly in hook-like manner before broadly rounded apex (Starý & Martinovský 1996, Fig. 19), but in T. (S.) latipons gonostylus is not curved as that and is slightly bent inwards along the whole length. Moreover, paramere is comparatively short and very broad proximally, and aedeagal apodeme is pale and short, narrow laterally in T. (S.) hirta while paramere in T. (S.) latipons is long and equally narrow along it’s length and aedeagal apodeme is black, rectangular and rather wide.The general view of male genitalia is similar in the newly described species (in specimens with membraneous flange on ventrobasal lobe of gonocoxites less sclerotized) compared to T. (S.) nordica, but gonostyli are slightly more curved medially in T. (S.) latipons compared to almost straight in T. (S.) nordica. Lateral apodemes of aedeagal complex in T. (S.) latipons are longer and more oval compared to those in T. (S.) nordica. Antennal flagellomeres are similar in size and form in both of these species, but the general pubescence is not that dense in T. (S.) latipons as in T. (S.) nordica. Male hind tarsal claws are longer in T. (S.) latipons, reaching about half of the length of the fifth tarsomere, while they are only 1/3 of the fifth tarsomere in males of T. (S.) nordica.
Etymology. The name of the species refers to its wide gonocoxal bridge (latus = wide, pons = bridge) and is a noun in the nominative singular, standing in apposition to the generic name.
description: Published as part of Petrašiūnas, Andrius & Podenas, Sigitas, 2017, New data on winter crane flies (Diptera: Trichoceridae) of Korea with description of a new species, pp. 561-575 in Zootaxa 4311 (4) on pages 564-565, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4311.4.8, http://zenodo.org/record/848459