Rachicerus carrerai Pujol-Luz 2019, new species
Creators: name: Pujol-Luz, José Roberto
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Xylophagidae
Rachicerus
Rachicerus carrerai

description: Rachicerus carrerai, new species
(Figs. 14–19, 20–21)
Type material. The male HOLOTYPE male is housed in the Coleção Entomológica do Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade de Brasília (DZUB), Brasília-DF, Brazil, and labeled: BRAZIL, AM [Amazonas], Manaus; Estrada ZF-2, 01. xi. 2005; arm[adilha de] luz móvel [white label]/ J.A. Rafael, F.F. Xavier Fo [Filho]. Machado, A.A. Agudelo; & Y.K. Dantas [white label]/Holótipo [red label]/UNB012417 [white label]. The specimen is in good condition; its left wing was removed and is preserved in a microvial on the specimen pin. Complementary material. PARATYPE male, labeled: BRAZIL, MS [Mato Grosso do Sul], Bodoquena, S 20 o 41’ 55,9” W 56 o 52’ 99,4”; SISBIOTA; CNPq/FAPESP, Malaise 06; 06-21.i.2012; Lamas, Nihei & eq. col. [white label]/ Parátipo [green label]/UNB012633 [white label], specimen in excellent condition preserved in a pin; PARATYPE male, labeled: COLOMBIA, Chocó PNN Los Katíos; Centro Administrativo Sautatá; Afuerta del Bosque N 7 o 51’ W 77 o 8’; 30m Malaise 4 29.v. 13.vi.2003; P. López Leg. M.3757 [white label] / Parátipo [green label], specimen is in excellent condition preserved in alcohol.
Etymology: This name is given in homage to Professor Messias Carrera, for his contributions and illustrious career in Brazilian entomology.
Geographical distribution. BRAZIL, Amazonas, Mato Grosso do Sul, COLOMBIA, Chocó.
Diagnosis. Rachicerus carrerai sp. nov. is distinguished by the antenna with bipectinate flagellomeres, the orange color of the thorax and the brightly metallic blue color of abdomen. Measurements: body length: 5 mm; antenna: 1,5 mm; number of antennal flagellomeres: 19; wings: 3,8 mm.
Head: hemispherical; frontal plate large and depressed, with small whitish setae in inferior margin (Figs 14– 15); fronto-orbital plate with the lateral margin with a triangular expansion into the compound eyes. Compound eyes dichoptic, reniform and bare (Fig. 15); vertex with ocellar triangle developed, black; ocellus brownish-yellow. Occiput well developed and very pilose (Fig. 15). Palps yellowish (Fig. 16), club-like and 2-segmented. Labellum yellowish (Fig. 16), membranous with elongate setae. Antenna elongate more than two times greater than the width of the head (Figs, 16–19), with 19 flagellomeres bipectinate (20–21), flagellomeres 1 st to 18 th bipectinate, 19 th single (Figs. 20–21), the external pecten yelowish and elongate, the internal pecten brownish and shorter than the external pecten. Thorax: predominantly brightly orange and pilose, scutellum brightly metallic blue to black and pilose (Figs. 17–18), halters brownish. Legs: coxae, trochanters and anterior half of femurs whitish, ½ posterior of femurs and tibiae brownish black, tibial spurs 1:2:2; tarsus whitish, empodia pulvilliform. Wings: hyaline, pterostigma inconspicuous, halters brownish-yellow, venation as Figure 19, similar to Rachicerus patterns, except: M2 interrupted before the wing margin, cells d and m3 short, veins M3+CuA1 and A1+CuA2 strongly petiolate. Abdomen: entirely metallic dark blue to black, with dense whitish pilosity; terminalia conical. Paratypes variation: The male specimen from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil (Figs. 24–26), shows a dark blue stripe going from the the anterior margin of the thorax to the extanded semi-circle spot before the scutellum (Figs. 25–26). The male specimen from Chocó, Colombia (Figs. 27–29) was preserved in alcohol and, has a paler and discolored appearance. The strong colors of the specimens preserved dry, are not so clear.
description: Published as part of Pujol-Luz, José Roberto, 2019, A new species of the genus Rachicerus Walker (Diptera: Xylophagidae), with notes on Messias Carrera's 1940 and 1945 types housed in Museu de Zoologia Universidade de São Paulo and in Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, pp. 126-134 in Zootaxa 4668 (1) on pages 129-132, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4668.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/3998560