Paraclius americanus Soares & Capellari & Ale-Rocha 2023, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Soares, Matheus M. M.
name: Capellari, Renato S.
name: Ale-Rocha, Rosaly
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Dolichopodidae
Paraclius
Paraclius americanus

description: Paraclius americanus (Schiner, 1868) comb. nov.
(Figs 1, 7)
Sybistroma americana Schiner, 1868: 220. Type locality: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tachytrechus americanus: Robinson 1970: 53. Yang et al. 2006: 207.
Paraclius diplacocerus Capellari, 2013: 293, syn. nov.
Diagnosis (male). Clypeus yellow, flat, shorter than face, lower margin straight and ending above lower eye margin (Fig. 1D). Postpedicel oval, longer than wide; arista-like stylus one-segmented, about 2X longer than eye height, with medial and apical lamellae, mostly bare, except for dorsal pubescence on lamellae, apical lamella longer than wide, rounded at apex (Fig. 1F). See Capellari (2013) for a complete redescription and illustrations of the male terminalia.
Type material examined. Sybistroma americana: LECTOTYPE ♁, labelled: “ Rio Janeiro | Novara – R.”; “americana [handwritten] | Alte Sammlung ”; “ Type [red label]”; “C” (NHMW). PARALECTOTYPE: same data as lectotype (1 ♀, NHMW).
Paraclius diplacocerus: HOLOTYPE ♁, labelled: “ BRASIL, SP, Salesópolis | Res. Biológica Boracéia | Sweeping | 06–11.xi.2010 | D.S. Amorim col.”; “ Paraclius | diplacocerus | Capellari 2013 HOLOTYPE” [red label]; “ MZ001744 ” (MZUSP).
Remarks. This species was described in the genus Sybistroma based on its long, one-segmented and bi-lamellate arista-like stylus of the male, a common feature of this genus. Robinson (1970) transferred S. americana to Tachytrechus Haliday stating: “As described the face is like Tachytrechus and unlike Sybistroma ” (p. 53). Capellari (2013) described a remarkable new species of Paraclius with the arista-like stylus of males one-segmented and bi-lamellate, which at the time was the only known species of Paraclius with this feature. After the examination of photographs of the male syntype of T. americanus (Schiner) housed at NHMW (Fig. 1), we concluded that P. diplacocerus is conspecific and should be synonymized under T. americanus.
Paraclius americanus comb. nov. is closely related to Paraclius vulcanoae sp. nov. by the antenna inserted on the top of head, frons very short, arista-like stylus of male one-segmented and bi-lamellate, clypeus yellow, clearly contrasting with the color of face and the presence of six strong dorsocentral setae. Paraclius americanus comb. nov. can be differentiated by its flat clypeus, about as high as face, with lower margin straight (Fig. 1D) (clypeus protruding, higher than face, with lower margin pointed in P. vulcanoae sp. nov. (Figs 4A, 5A, B)), and male terminalia with basiventral epandrial lobe hook-shaped and apicoventral epandrial lobe longer than wide (Capellari 2013, fig. 5) (basiventral epandrial lobe rounded and apicoventral epandrial lobe wider than long, somewhat fan-shaped in P. vulcanoae sp. nov. (Fig. 6B, C)).
Distribution. Brazil (states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and S„o Paulo). This species is known to occur only in the Atlantic Forest biome (Fig. 7).
description: Published as part of Soares, Matheus M. M., Capellari, Renato S. & Ale-Rocha, Rosaly, 2023, Species of Paraclius Loew (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) with bi-lamellate antennal stylus: new combination, new synonym, and two new species, pp. 37-51 in Zootaxa 5231 (1) on pages 38-40, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5231.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/7574093