Cladochaeta caxiuana Carvalho-Filho & Pirani & Kloss 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Carvalho-Filho, Fernando Da Silva
name: Pirani, Gabriela
name: Kloss, Thiago Gechel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Drosophilidae
Cladochaeta
Cladochaeta caxiuana

description: Cladochaeta caxiuana sp. nov.
(Figs. 1–6, 8, 10–26)
Material examined. Holotype ♂ labelled as follow: Melgaço, PA [= state of Pará], Brasil [= Brazil]/ ECFPn [= Ferreira Penna Scientific Station]-Flona Caxiuanã [= National Forest of Caxiuanã]/ Trilha do Esecaflor [= Esecaflor trail]/ 17.III.2017 / F.S. Carvalho Filho [collector]// Criação de pupas/ associadas à/ Sphodroscarta trivirgata [= Reared from pupas associated to Sphodroscarta trivirgata]. Specimen in good condition with terminalia cleared and stored in a microvial pinned below the source specimen. Deposited in Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP).
Paratypes 9 ♂♂ and 10 ♀♀ labelled as holotype. 1 ♂ and 2 ♀♀ are deposited in Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP) and the remaining are deposited in Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG).
Description. Body length: 2.8–3.71 mm. Head (Figs. 3–4). Much higher than wide; slightly wider than thorax. Eye nude, red. Pedicel and first flagellomere light yellow; arista with 4 dorsal and one ventral branches, plus apical fork; ventral branch between third dorsal branch and fourth dorsal branch (Fig. 8). Frons yellow, ocellar triangle bearing four setulae plus the ocelar setae; 10–15 interfrontal setulae present. Fronto-orbital plate diverging from eye margin. Anterior reclinate orbital seta ca. 1/3 the length of posterior reclinate orbital seta and posterolateral to proclinate orbital seta; posterior reclinate orbital seta as long as proclinate orbital seta and midway between proclinate orbital seta and inner vertical seta; ca. 7 fronto-orbital setulae present. Face flat, yellow; parafacial, oral margin and gena whitish yellow; subvibrissal setae of different lengths in two uneven rows. Proboscis and palpus yellow. Thorax (Figs. 1–2). Length: 1.21–1.35 mm. Mostly yellow; scutum mostly yellow, with three interrupted very slightly lighter stripes halfway close to scutoscutellar suture, medial one passing to scutum (Holotype) or with a medial slightly darker band anteriorly broadened. Anterior dorsocentral ca. 1/3 length of posterior dorsocentral. Posterior dorsocentral midway between scutoscutellar suture and anterior dorsocentral. Acrostichal setulae in 8–10 more or less even rows. Basal scutellars parallel, apical scutellars convergent. Two postpronotal seta present, ventral ca. ½ the length of dorsal one; 10 postpronotal setulae present. Two katepisternal setae, anterior being ca 1/ 3 the length of posterior; two vertical rows of setulae on posterior half of katepsternum. Legs uniformly pale yellow; forefemur with 5–6 posteroventral and one posterodorsal distinctively large setae. Wing (Figs. 5–6). Length: 2.4–2.8 mm. Membrane infuscate, clouds of darker infuscation covering the distal half of R2+3 and R4+5 and distal third of M1+2 (continuously [Fig. 5] or separately [Fig. 6]). More or less rounded cloud over dm-cu. C ending at M1+2, R2+3 very slightly curved towards anterior wing margin. R4+5 and M parallel, both slightly curved towards posterior margin. Crossvein dm-cu sinuous, perpendicular to CuA1. Halter pale yellow. Abdomen uniformilly brown or with yellow central areas on tergites. Male terminalia (Figs.10–13). Epandrium with inverted U-shape, higher than wide, with a row of 7–8 long setae on ventrolateral halves; almost entirely covered with microtrichia; ventral portion of halves thinner. Cercus with ventrolateral lobe extending laterally to medial portion of epandrium. Phallus partly sclerotized, partly membranous; four sclerotized projections, distal ones wider, longer and ventrally curved anteriorly; proximal shorter and pointed straight ventrally; central portion mostly membranous, marginally sclerotized; connected to the most distal projections by a membrane. Surstylus long and sinuous, distally folded over itself and with a ventral finger shape projection; setae covering the margin of folded portion, no setae on the ventral projection. Hypandrium Y-shaped. Phallapodeme triangular, wider dorsally, narrower ventrally. Female terminalia (Figs. 14–15). Epiproct wider than long, covered with setulae and with strong setae restricted to anterior half. Hypoproct short, much more wider than long, with some marginal setae. Apical sternite an inverted U-shaped sclerite with rounded lateral arms, plate between the arms with waved posterior margin bearing a row of strong setae; lateral arms of sternite extended slightly beneath penultimate tergite and without setae or setulae. Apical tergite small, subrectangular, covered with setulae and without setae. Apical tergite and sternite not connected laterally. Penultimate sternite and tergite large, wider than long, covered with setae. Puparium (Figs. 16–22). Reddish brown. Elongate, with lateral margins and anterior region dorsally flattened anteriorly, slightly narrowed anteriorly and posteriorly, without protuberances and spinulose bands in the intersegmental region, except in the first segment that has a row of minute spines anteriorly. Dorsal surface with vertical parallel wrinkles. Hardly any constrictions at the segmental borders. Abdominal segments with prolegs composed by rosettes of creeping welt spinules. Anterior spiracle on an elongated tubular stalk, with approximately 10 to12 long branches; stalk longer than branches. Caudal two segments elongate. Paranal sac composed by two rounded plates. Posterior spiracles placed in an elongated small tubular filament.
Etymology. The species epithet is in apposition and refers to the type locality, the National Forest of Caxiuanã, and means city of the snakes.
Distribution. NEOTROPICAL—Brazil (Pará).
Remarks. This species belongs to inversa species group. It closely resembles C. dracula Grimaldi & Nguyen, 1999 and C. heedi Grimaldi & Nguyen, 1999 due to general shape of male terminalia. It differs from them on the length of ventrolateral lobe of cercus (that is nearly equal that of cercus in C. dracula and C. heedi, shorter in C. caxiuana); number of setae on ventrolateral halves of epandrium (6 in C. dracula and C. heedi, 7–8 in C. caxiuana); epandrium covered with microtrichia in C. caxiuana, while no microtrichia reported to C. dracula and C. heedi); proximal projection of phallus (small spur-like medial lobe lying near middle of each paraphyses to Grimaldi & Nguyen (1999)) shorter in C. dracula and C. heedi than in C. caxiuana; surstylus simple and lobe-like in C. dracula and C. heedi, sinuous and with a finger-shape projection on C. caxiuana. It also differs on coloration, in which C. dracula presents bluish pruinescence on notum and scutellum, which is not observed in C. caxiuana. Cladochaeta heedi has a pair of prescutelar enlarged setulae, which is absent in C. caxiuana and C. dracula.
The female terminalia of C. caxiuana (Figs. 14, 15) is similar to that of C. heedi in having an inverted Ushaped apical sternite but in C. caxiuana the region between the lateral arms of the sternite is waved while in C.
heedi it is continuous (Fig. 36 in Grimaldi & Nguyen (1999)). In addition, the apical tergite is saddle-shaped in C. heedi (Fig. 36 in Grimaldi & Nguyen (1999)) and subrectangular in C. caxiuana.
Biology. All the studied specimens were obtained from pupae found inside the foam produced by the nymphs of Sphodroscarta trivirgata (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Aphrophoridae) in the twig of an unidentified plant about 80 cm from the ground (Figs. 23, 25). In addition, some Cladochaeta larvae were found on the spittlebug nymphs (Fig. 24). Most of the species of Cladochaeta, whose biology is known, are associated with spittlebugs, but only one species of Ecuador, C. spectabilis Grimaldi & Nguyen, has been found associated with an unidentified species of Sphodroscarta Stål (Grimaldi & Nguyen, 1999). Therefore, it is the first record Sphodroscarta trivirgata (Fig. 26) as host of Cladochaeta. Unlike C. spectabilis, the larvae of C. caxiuana did not pupate on the host.
description: Published as part of Carvalho-Filho, Fernando Da Silva, Pirani, Gabriela & Kloss, Thiago Gechel, 2018, A new species and notes on unusual natural history of Cladochaeta Coquillett, 1900 (Diptera: Drosophilidae), pp. 483-496 in Zootaxa 4410 (3) on pages 484-491, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4410.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/1221792