Psychoda alternicula Quate
Creators: name: Cordeiro, Danilo
name: Bravo, Freddy
name: De, Claudio J. B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Psychodidae
Psychoda
Psychoda alternicula

description: Psychoda alternicula Quate
Psychoda alternicula Quate, 1955: 222. Type Locality: EUA (Florida, W. Palm Beach, Morrison Field)
Diagnosis. antenna with 13 flagellomeres, 11th fused to 12th, 13th very small; ascoids in Y with short arms; wing with infuscation at the apex of veins; male cerci longer than 1.5 times the length of epandrium; gonostylus as long as gonocoxite, and with short setae homogeneously distributed; paramere shorter than aedeagus; female subgenital plate in Y with an prominent basal band.
Additional characters. hair patch of frons extending to facet row 1 or 2, rarely to 3; 5–7 supra-ocular setae; clypeus without conspicuous alveoli; frontoclypeal suture absent; distitarsus with apical projection; female subgenital plate with a few setae at the internal margin of the lobes; genital chamber rounded, with a posterior apodeme; male gonostylus as long as gonocoxite, with an acute apex and short setae homogeneously distributed; paramere strongly curved.
Material examined. type material: Holotype Ƥ USA, Florida, Morrison Field, W. Palm, Beach, 02.x.1942, col. D. E. Hardy (USNM). Other specimens: 3 Ƥ BRAZIL, Mato Grosso, Barão de Melgaço, baia de Brocoruré, 07.iv.1998, 20 cdc – m, col. RF /FLS/RDN (2 INPA, 1 MZUEFS); 1 3 and 2 Ƥ BRAZIL, Bahia, Dantilândia, Faz Edmilson, 14.iv.2005, Malaise trap, col. C. Chagas & R. Vieira (MZUEFS); 3 3 and 3 Ƥ Bahia, Dantilândia, 17.iv.2005, col. R. Vieira & C. Chagas (MZUEFS); 1 Ƥ Bahia, Dantilândia, x–xi.2005, Malaise trap, col. C. Oliveira (MZUEFS).
Distribution. North and Central America and Brazil (Mato Grosso and Bahia).
Comments. Psychoda alternicula and P. alternata, together with P. lativentris Berdén, compose the species complex known as the “ alternata complex” (Quate 1955). This species group is characterized by the presence of brown spots (infuscation) on the wing apex, antenna with 13 flagellomeres, 11th-13th reduced upwardly and the short arms of the ascoids. This features are also the diagnostic characters of the subgenus Tinearia, and it seems to delimit a very homogeneous group of species. These species can be distinguished from one another mainly by the female terminalia. Psychoda alternata has a V-shaped subgenital plate, whereas the subgenital plate of P. alternicula is shaped as a Y, with a prominent basal band. Psychoda lativentris has a U-shaped subgenital plate, with a prominent basal band, as in P. alternicula. Few inconspicuous differences are present in the male terminalia: P. alternata has a robust paramere that is as long as the distiphallus, whereas P. alternicula has a thinner paramere that is curved and shorter than the distiphallus; the paramere of P. lativentris is thin and shorter than the distiphallus (according to Quate (1955)).
description: Published as part of Cordeiro, Danilo, Bravo, Freddy & De, Claudio J. B., 2011, Taxonomy of Brazilian Psychoda Latreille, 1796 (Diptera, Psychodidae) with the description of thirteen new species, pp. 1-37 in Zootaxa 3101 on pages 6-7, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.205242