Vladelektra blagoderovi Evenhuis 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Evenhuis, Neal L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Keroplatidae
Vladelektra
Vladelektra blagoderovi

description: <i>Vladelektra blagoderovi</i> Evenhuis, sp. nov. (Figs. 1–7) <b>Type material</b>. Holotype male (BPBMENT 0000016434) and paratype female (BPBMENT 0000016435) from MYANMAR: Kachin State: Hukawng Valley in the same amber piece. <i>Other paratype</i>: a separate amber piece with male (BPMENT 0000016436) from same locality. The amber pieces containing the holotype and paratypes are deposited in the entomological collection of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, USA. <b>Etymology of genus and species epithets</b>. The generic (combining <i>Vlad</i> + the Greek ^λέκτρα <i>“elektra</i> ” = “amber”) and specific names honor my good friend and colleague Vladimir Blagoderov for his significant contributions to fossil dipterology and for increasing our knowledge of Sciaroidea. <b>Diagnosis</b>. As for genus. <b>Description</b>. <b>Male</b>. Based on two specimens, each with head, legs and abdomen cleared internally. Lengths: Body: 2.2–2.3 mm; wing: 1.5–1.6 mm. (Habitus Fig. 2). <i>Head</i>. Occiput and frons pale brown. Face and clypeus dark brown. Eyes without inter-ommatidial setae; facets of two sizes, upper half of eye with larger ommatidia than lower half. Ocelli not discernable due to opacity of head capsule. Palp (Fig. 3) moniliform, three-segmented, each segment lozenge-shaped, subequal in length, apicalmost segment setose on apical half, with subapical palpal pit. Antennae (Fig. 4): brown, scape and pedicel discoid. Flagellum: 14 segments; segments 1–4 cylindrical, ca. two times longer than wide; segments 5–14 length subequal to width; terminal segment (14) subconical. <i>Thorax</i>. Dark brown. Notum with sparse long hairs irregularly arranged. Scutellum with long hairs at apex. Pleura brownish black (vestiture not viewable). Halter stem pale brown, knob brown. <i>Legs</i>. Brown. Coxae long, all same length. Hind femur with yellow color basoventrally and thin yellow stripe ventrally on basal two-thirds. Tibiae with trichia not arranged in rows. Tibial spurs long: 1: 2: 2. Tibial length 1.25 times femoral length; basitarsus length 1/2 length of tibia. Tarsi shorter than body length. Claws minute. <i>Wing</i> (Fig. 5). Hyaline. Costa with minute spicules along entire length; microchaetae on R 1, all other veins bare. Costa ends beyond end of R 4+5 two-thirds distance to end of M 1. Sc incomplete. R 2+3 ending in C two-thirds distance from end of R 1 to end of R 4+5. Base of M 1 and M 2 effaced, junction of M 1 and M 2 faintly evident. M 4 effaced at base, curved downward on apical fourth. CuA complete, curved downward at apical one-fourth. CuP absent. Alula reduced. <i>Abdomen.</i> Brown with spot of yellow at posterolateral corner of each tergite. Long, thin, slightly dorso-ventrally compressed, with sparse hairs dorsally, laterally, and ventrolaterally. Genitalia (Fig. 7) Gonocoxa linear-conical, long, thin. Gonostylus long, thin, tapering to darkly sclerotized bifid apical one-fifth, with short setae along dorsal surface, other short setae subapically on ventral surface. Tergal apodeme short, narrow, slightly flared basally. Epandrium subquadrate, slightly tapered to apex, ca. two times longer than basal width, with rounded apex, and patch of minute villi on apical fifth. <b>Female</b>. As in male except lack of vein R 2+3 (cf. Fig. 6) and shorter antennae (cf. Fig. 4). Basal connection of veins M 1 and M 2 not effaced; vein M 1 not reaching wing margin. <b>Remarks</b>. The close proximity of the tips of the abdomens of the holotype male and paratype female lead to the possibility that they became trapped while <i>in copula</i> and separated during their struggle to escape. DISCUSSION <i>Vladelektra</i> intriguingly exhibits features of both Keroplatidae (s. str.) (wing venation) and the former Lygistorrhinidae [now a subfamily within Keroplatidae (<i>teste</i> Matic <i>et al</i>. 2020)] (male genitalia with tergal apodeme). Although lacking a well developed proboscis as in many lygistorrhinids (<i>Seguyola</i> Matile, 1990 also lacks them) and possessing male genitalia reminiscent of many lygistorrhinids, especially in the presence of the tergal apodeme (see Fig. 6), the wing venation with effaced basal portions of medial and cubital veins, and the presence of R 2+ 3 in the male (although lacking in the female) would seem to better place <i>Vladelektra</i> within Keroplatidae (s. str.) for now. The radial-medial fusion (characteristic of Keroplatidae) that is not seen in this species could be there, but is not discernable due the effaced base of the medial veins. The dimorphism between males and females is most striking in the presence (males) or absence (females) of R 2+3 and also evident in the differences in length of the antennae and in shape of the antennal flagellomeres (cf. Fig. 4). Within Keroplatidae (s. str.), the specimens appear similar in some respects to the extant Afrotropical <i>Asynaphleba</i> Matile, 1974 (both having 14-segmented flagellomeres; short R 2+3, and moniliform palpal segments). However, it is clearly not that genus based on the presence of CuP (absent in <i>Vladelektra</i>), and R 2+3 ending in C closer to the end of R 1 than R 4+5 (ending closer to R 4+ 5 in <i>Vladelektra</i>). Additionally, <i>Asynaphleba</i> has a distinct stem of M, base of M 4, and m-cu, all of which are effaced in <i>Vladelektra</i>. <i>Vladelektra</i> gen. nov. is also similar to the keroplatine Papuan and Oriental <i>Xenokeroplatus</i> Matile, 1981 in wing venation (especially effaced bases of medial vweins) and lacks vein CuP, which characterizes the latter genus among Keroplatini in those keys, but (besides having three instead of two palpal segments) <i>Vladelektra</i> differs in having legs much shorter (tarsi longer than body length in <i>Xenokeroplatus</i>), external tibial spurs present (absent in <i>Xenokeroplatus</i>), shorter mediotergite (more pronounced in <i>Xenokeroplatus</i>), male antennal flagellomeres more cylindrical (compressed and shorter in overall length in <i>Xenokeroplatus</i>), and distinctly different male genitalia with tergal apodeme present (absent in <i>Xenokeroplatus</i>). Blagoderov &amp; Arillo (2002) described a keroplatid, <i>Hegalari</i> Blagoderov &amp; Arillo, 2002 from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Alava, Spain that also lacks vein CuP. They were unsure of the placement of the genus within the family, but its features were most similar to those belonging to Macrocerinae. <i>Hegalari</i> is not the same as <i>Vladelektra</i> in that the antennae of the type species, <i>Hegalari antzinako</i> Blagoderov &amp; Arillo, are somewhat compressed and the overall length is much shorter than those in males of <i>Vladelektra</i> (probably due to the type of <i>H. antzinako</i> possibly being a female). However, the second species described in that paper, <i>Hegalari minor,</i> is much more similar to <i>Vladelektra</i> and has much longer antennae with more cylindrical flagellomeres as in <i>Vladelektra</i> males and slightly different wing venation than <i>H. antzinako</i> and might be better removed to a separate genus. <i>Vladelektra</i> differs from <i>H. minor</i> in having R 4 closer to the apex of the wing than in <i>H. minor</i>, the base of M 1 effaced (present in <i>H. minor</i>), and the apicalmost male flagellomere length subequal to width (two times as long as wide in <i>H. minor</i>). This marks the third described species of Keroplatidae from Burmese amber (Guo <i>et al.</i> 2017 [species of which are treated in Mycetophilidae]; Ross 2019). Cockerell (1917) described <i>Burmacrocera</i> (now placed in Orfeliini). Šev&amp;ccaron;ík <i>et al</i>. (2020) described a second species (in the new genus <i>Adamacrocera</i>) belonging to a new putative primitive subfamily with similarities to Macrocerinae.
description: Published as part of <i>Evenhuis, Neal L., 2020, Vladelektra, an enigmatic new genus of killer fungus gnats (Diptera: Keroplatidae: incertae sedis) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber., pp. 1-9 in Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 139</i> on pages 3-8, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4305528
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