Cyrtosia baccadomus Gharali & Evenhuis, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gharali, Babak
name: Evenhuis, Neal
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Bombyliidae
Cyrtosia
Cyrtosia baccadomus

description: Cyrtosia baccadomus Gharali & Evenhuis sp. nov.
(Figs. 1–2)
Type material. Holotype male and 1 female paratype (dried by HMDS), Olive research station (Loshan), Tarom, 30 June 2009, N 36°40' E 49°25', 339 m a.s.l., Leg. B. Gharali (ZMHB); 2 male paratypes, same data as holotype (in alcohol) (BPBM), 1 male paratype (genitalia dissected, in alcohol), same data as holotype (BG).
Diagnosis. Frons with black median stripe medially; mesonotum black with white hairs; halter yellow completely; scutellum bicolored, black basally, posterior margin yellow; epandrium with single apicolateral process; gonocoxites fused medially, medially with sclerotized, black, sickle shaped processes [gonostyli].
Description. Holotype male (Fig. 1 b). Lengths. Body: 1.9 mm; wing: 2.3 mm. Head. Subglobular; eyes dichoptic, width at vertex 1.5 times distance between lateral ocelli; occiput and vertex black; ocellar triangle black; frons slightly depressed medially, black just below middle ocellus at level of upper eye margin (Fig. 1 f), extending downward as narrow stripe; face and oral margin yellow; antennae brown, scape minute, pedicel cylindrical, slightly longer than wide, first flagellomere ellipsoid, length about two times greatest width, second flagellomere cylindrical, length one-half of first flagellomere, with minute apical style; proboscis brown, length slightly shorter (0.8 x) than head height, labrum sclerotized, stiff, pointed apically, equal to proboscis in length (Figs. 1 a, b, c). Thorax. Pronotum black; mesonotum black (Fig. 1 e), with minute white hairs, postpronotal lobe and postalar callus yellow, yellow lateral margin from postpronotal lobe to postalar callus interrupted by broad black stripe at wing base; scutellum bicolored, black basally, posterior margin yellow (Fig. 1 e); pleura (Figs. 1 a, b, c) black except yellow on following: propleuron completely, small spot posteromedially on anepisternum, anterior margin of anepisternum, upper margin of katepisternum, katepimeron, and upper margin of anepimeron; halter stem and knob yellowish white. Legs (Fig. 1 c). Coxae brown; femora brown except apices yellow; tibiae brownish yellow; two basal tarsal segments yellow, remainder yellowish brown; claws black. Wing. Hyaline, Sc, Rs basally, vein separating basal cells and anal vein white to translucent; costal, radial, and medial veins brown; costa ends slightly beyond end of R4+5; vein Sc incomplete, ending at level about equal to origin of vein R2+3; vein R2+3 end in wing margin equidistance from vein R1 and R4+5; cell dm open, without crossvein closing it apically; vein M1+2 one half length of fork point to margin of wing; length of cell br 1.5 times that of cell bm, anal cell narrowly open at wing margin, width subequal to r-m crossvein; fringe of hair on posterior margin of wing minute. Abdomen (Fig. 1 d). Tergites dark brown, lateral margins yellow, anterior margin of first tergite and posterior margin of all tergites narrowly yellow; sternites almost all brown, posterior margins of all sternites yellow; hypopygium dark brown except outer margin of epandrium narrowly yellow (Fig. 1 c). Male genitalia. Epandrium (Fig. 2 d) subquadrate in dorsal view, apicolaterally with short process [pseudosurstylus], cercus triangular, membranous, inner margin slightly sclerotized; Gonocoxites (Figs. 2 b, c) fused medially, oval in lateral view, subquadrate in ventral view, with a large pointed process apicolaterally, medioventrally with short process having long and whitish bristly hairs (Fig. 2 b), medially with sclerotized, black, sickle shaped processes [gonostyli] (Fig. 2 c); in lateral view basal aedeagal apodeme (Fig. 2 a) large, inverted T-shaped, slightly longer than gonocoxal apodemes, anteriorly pointed; lateral aedeagal apodemes triangular, aedeagal bulb large, oval with small finger-shaped process laterally, narrowing as very long aedeagus.
Female. similar to males but larger in size. Female genitalia. Not dissected.
Etymology. The name of the new species is composed of two Latin words: bacca [= olive berry] + domus [= home] and refers to the type specimens being collected from Loshan (Qazvin province), the olive growing area. The name is treated as a noun in apposition.
Distribution. At the present time this species is known only from Iran. The city of Loshan in Qazvin province (type locality) has a Mediterranean climate, covered with rocky and sandy hills and includes numerous olive gardens (Fig. 3 c). Specimens were swept from an unidentified composite plant blooming with yellow flowers.
Remarks. Cyrtosia baccadomus sp. nov. is distinguished from the congeners in Iran by the colors of the scutellum, frons and halter. This species is separated from C. persica by the bicolorous scutellum that is basally brown and marginally yellow (completely black in C. persica) and by having a black median stripe on the frons (a small spot on frons in C. persica). The new species is separated from C. bispermatheca sp. nov. by the completely yellow halter knob (in C. bispermatheca the halter knob has a large brown spot) and from C. zieglerii sp. nov. by the yellow frons with a black stripe medially (mostly black in C. zieglerii) and having a single apicolateral process on the epandrium (paired processes on the epandrium in C. zieglerii).
In both Cyrtosia keys, the key to Palaearctic (Engel 1933) and to Mediterranean species (Séguy 1949), our new species runs to C. marginata but it easily separated by the color of the frons. Our new species has a yellow frons with a black stripe medially, but in C. marginata the frons is almost all black except narrowly yellow at the base of the antennae.
Efflatoun (1945) provided a key to Egyptian species of Cyrtosia. Based on his key, C. baccadomus is related to C. nubila Bezzi, 1925 but the color of frons is quite different in the two species so they are easily distinguished. Cyrtosia baccadomus with a black stripe on the yellow frons separates it from the Egyptian species with an almost all black frons.
description: Published as part of Gharali, Babak & Evenhuis, Neal, 2017, Review of the genus Cyrtosia Perris (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae: Platypyginae) in Iran, with description of three new species, pp. 230-244 in Zootaxa 4269 (2) on pages 231-235, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4269.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/582011