Peltopsilopa acuta Savaris & Marinoni & Mathis 2016, n.sp.
Creators: name: Savaris, Marcoandre
name: Marinoni, Luciane
name: Mathis, Wayne N.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Ephydridae
Peltopsilopa
Peltopsilopa acuta

description: Peltopsilopa acuta Savaris, Marinoni & Mathis n.sp.
(Figs. 1‒3, 10, 13, 15‒29, 45, 47, 50, 52)
Diagnosis. This species is similar to P. anisotomoides (Karsch) but differs as follows: Body generally shiny, polished, navy blue to dark brown; moderately small shore flies, body length 2.20 mm (Figs. 2‒3). Head: Frons shiny, polished with metallic luster; ocelli arranged in isosceles triangle, distance between posterior ocelli greater than between either posterior ocellus and anteromedial ocellus; vertex acutely angled, creased. Antenna yellow; dorsum of basal flagellomere tan to brownish yellow; arista with 8‒9 dorsal rays. Face shallowly arched, shiny, polished, similar to frons, bearing an inclinate seta at lateral margin at midheight; facial ratio 0.63; ventral facial emargination conspicuously arched. Gena-to-eye ratio 0.19. Maxillary palpus irregularly spatulate, blackish brown (Fig. 1). Thorax: Almost entirely deep blue to brownish blue, shiny, microsculptured. Mesonotal length 1.95 mm; acrostichal setae in 2 regular rows on each side, presutural pair slightly enlarged, displaced laterally; scutum deep, navy blue, polished, shiny; scutellum greatly enlarged, longer than scutum, shiny, microsculptured, appearing shallowly and slightly wrinkled, scutellar length 1.45 mm, almost as wide as long, scutellar length-to-width ratio 0.88, shape in lateral view shallowly dome-like, posterior margin bluntly rounded with corners broadly rounded, with basal and apical setae, these small, with a few addition setulae laterally and on dorsal surface, but these not conspicuous, ventral scutellar surface shallowly concave; scutellar base lacking a dentate, sharp, short projection laterally; anepisternum with few small light setulae, except for 2 thicker black setae on posterior margin; katepisternum with a strong dorsal seta. Wing (Fig. 45) mostly hyaline, faintly infuscate, tannish, basal fourth, including crossvein r-m, darkened; length 1.95 mm; costal vein ratio 0.86; M vein ratio 1.03. Femora blackish brown except for yellowish apices; tibiae yellow, slightly brownish yellow medially; basitarsomere of foreleg brownish medially, apices yellow, tarsi of mid- and hindlegs yellow to whitish yellow. Abdomen: Tergites blackish brown, shiny; tergites much wider than long; length of tergites 3 and 4 subequal; tergite 5 of male partially telescoped into tergite 4, length slightly more than half of tergite 4; sternite 1 smaller than other sternites but not greatly reduced, a narrow, transverse, complete band, anterior margin broadly concave, posterior margin shallowly emarginate; sternite 2 quadrate, slightly wider anteriorly than posteriorly, lateral margins not conspicuously arched, width slightly greater than length; sternites 3 subquadrate, width just slightly greater than length, lateral margins arched; sternite 4 slightly wider than long, posterior margin wider than anterior margin, lateral margins shallowly arched, sternite 5 robustly U-shaped with anterior base longer than depth of posterior concavity (Fig. 13). Male terminalia: Epandrium in posterior view (Fig. 15) as an inverted U, dorsal arch thinner than extended, lateral arms, arms nearly straight, parallel, widest subventrally, in lateral view (Fig. 16) as a tear drop, narrow dorsally, becoming wider ventrally, ventral margin angularly rounded; cercus in posterior view moderately elongate, hemispherical, rounded dorsomedially, medial margin shallowly convex to nearly straight, generally setulose, in lateral view (Fig. 16) lunate; presurstylus in posterior view (Fig. 15) elongate, length about twice base, wider at base with medial, blunt projection, projection bearing 4 setulae, thereafter shallow pedunculate along midlength, apical third tapered to acute point, in lateral view (Fig. 16) with basal foot, posterior margin conspicuously emarginate, projected posteriorly subapically, apex broadly pointed; postsurstylus in lateral view (Fig. 27) more or less L-shaped with narrow, shallowly excavate base, extended process much wider than base, spatulate, parallel sided, apex very shallowly arched, in ventral view (Fig. 26) L-shaped with short arm as a short, digitiform process, long arm shallowly angulate, narrowed basally, apical half bearing short setulae; pregonite in ventral view (Fig. 24) irregularly quadrate, corners rounded, slightly produced at apical corner, bearing 4 setulae, in lateral view (Fig. 29) triangular, base with one angle rounded, the other acutely pointed, apex bearing 4 setulae; aedeagus in ventral view (Fig. 19) robust, longer than wide, pedunculate, lateral margins conspicuously concave, in lateral view (Fig. 21) elongate, slightly wider basally, shallowly pedunculate, apical fourth tapered, apex narrowly rounded; phallapodeme in lateral view (Fig. 21) triangular, keel somewhat rounded rectangular, in ventral view (Fig. 20) hour-glass shaped, spool-like; subepandrial plate in lateral view (Fig. 28) comma-like, in ventral view (Fig. 22) transversely band-like, shallowly arched; hypandrium in lateral view (Fig. 25) robust, longer than wide, posterior portion bifurcate, anterior half quadrate, in ventral view (Fig. 23) U-shaped with base wider and robustly developed, anterior margin broadly rounded, lateral, posterior extensions slightly oriented medially, posterior margin deeply emarginate, emargination bottle-like swollen basally with narrower neck.
Type material. The holotype male of Peltopsilopa acuta is labeled “ Peru: Loreto [,] Iquitos, Barillal [sic =Varillal; 03°53.3'S, 73°21.1'W] 10.11.1984 [10 Nov 1984] leg. L. Huggert/ USNM ENT 0 0 118312 [plastic bar code label]/ HOLOTYPE ♂ Peltopsilopa acuta Savaris, Marinoni & Mathis MZLU [red].” The holotype is double mounted (minuten pin in a rectangular piece of plastic), is in excellent condition (abdomen removed and dissected), and is deposited in MZLU.
Type locality. Peru. Loreto: Iquitos, Varillal Village (03°53.3'S, 73°21.1'W).
Other specimens examined. Neotropical. COSTA RICA. Cartago: Turrialba (CATIE; 09°54.3'N, 83°41'W; 650 m), 26 Feb‒08 Jul 1982, 1986, F. B. Peairs, M. Carballo (2♀; USNM). Intercepted in Los Angeles Airport - flowers 30 Sep 2009 (1 ♀; USNM).
PANAMÁ. In shipment, on banana debris (1♀; USNM).
Distribution. Neotropical: Costa Rica (Cartago), Panamá, Peru (Loreto) (Fig. 52).
Etymology. The species epithet, acuta, is a Latin adjective meaning pointed and refers to the sharply point apex of the presurstylus of this species.
Remarks. This species is distinguished from P. anisotomoides primarily by the shape of structures of the male terminalia (see key and figures). In addition, we have noted that the contrasted coloration of the scutum (deep, navy blue) as opposed to the scutellum (brownish blue) of this species is potentially useful although we have noted some variation. Specimens of P. anisotomoides tend to have a unicolorous mesonotum. Likewise, this species has more scutellar setulae.
We did not include the specimens from Costa Rica and Panamá in the type series because we lacked a male for dissection and species confirmation. Although not paratypes, we are confident of their conspecificity based on the external characters we discovered and that are included in the diagnosis. We observed that these specimens have conspicuous rows of scutellar setulae, which may be intraspecific variation or perhaps they represent specimens that did not have these setulae broken and missing.
description: Published as part of Savaris, Marcoandre, Marinoni, Luciane & Mathis, Wayne N., 2016, Revision of the shore-fly genus Peltopsilopa Hendel (Diptera: Ephydridae), pp. 83-98 in Zootaxa 4083 (1) on pages 86-88, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4083.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/1054066