Boreofairchildia Wagner & Stuckenberg, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Wagner, Rüdiger
name: Stuckenberg, Brian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Psychodidae
Boreofairchildia

description: Genus Boreofairchildia Wagner & Stuckenberg gen. nov.
Type species: Nemopalpus sziladyi Tonnoir 1940, 6th Congr. Internat. Ebt. Madrid, 1935: 206, by present designation
Etymology. dedicated to G.B. Fairchild, medical entomologist with important publications on taxonomy and ecology of Neotropical Phlebotominae and Bruchomyiinae, and ‘boreos’ (Greek for north); gender is feminine.
Species included (all transferred from Nemopalpus): B. antillarum comb. nov. [Dominican Republic]; B. arroyoi comb. nov. [Guatemala, Panama, Mexico]; B. mopani comb. nov. [Guatemala, Mexico, Belize]; B. moralesi comb. nov. [Guatemala]; B. multisetosus comb. nov. [Ecuador]; B. nearcticus comb. nov. [USA, Bahamas]; B. parva comb. nov. [Brazil]; B. patriciae comb. nov. [Colombia]; B. sziladyi comb. nov. [Costa Rica, Panama]; B. torrealbai comb. nov. [Venezuela]; B. yucatanensis comb. nov. [Mexico]; and B. youngi comb. nov. [Dominican Republic]. Fossil: B. scheveni (Wagner, 2006) comb. nov. [Dominican Amber].
Diagnosis. Sixteen antennomeres, anal vein distally curved towards wing margin, male vasa deferentia widening basally, aedeagus as long as or slightly shorter than ejaculatory apodeme and gonocoxites; gonocoxites without medial appendages, gonostyli basally broad, with two or more distal projections. Female spermatheca elongate, with a long slit, with internal setiform sculpturing.
Comments. Specimens have antennae 4–6 times longer than head diameter, flagellomeres with predominantly subdiscoidal ascoids. Palp segment 5 longer than combined length of segments 1 to 4; apex of palpus usually reaches flagellomere 3 or 4. Newstead scales on the third palpomere mentioned for B. antillarum, B. arroyoi and B. mopani. Parameres heavily sclerotized, with vertical and horizontal projections distinct, clearly differentiated.
Wing venation (Fig. 3 c) with r-m cross-vein basal to origin of M1+2, and vein R2 much shorter than R2+3; in some species cross veins rudimentary or even missing. In B. yucatanensis 2 or 3 radial veins do not directly meet costa, but connection is by short perpendicular ‘cross-veins’ (this was described for both sexes so it is highly improbable that it is an anomaly).
B. antillarum, B. mopani, B. nearcticus, B. sziladyi, and B. torrealbai possess lateral sclerites covered with setae tufts on differing numbers of abdomen segments that are supposed to play a major role in courtship behavior, and that probably act to distribute pheromones (Tonnoir 1940). In addition, abdominal tergites 1–2, 1–3, or 1–4 with a dorsal groove if tufts are present. Therein the elongate setae are positioned when they are not needed for courtship behavior. For B. torrealbai, lateral tufts are present, but no dorsal grooves were mentioned (Ortiz & Scorza 1963). Inversion of genitalia is by segments 8 and 9. Gonocoxites simple, without any appendage but with tendency to fuse at base. Gonostyli basally broad, distally with 2 to 4 elongate projections of shape differing among species. Ejaculatory apodeme rod-shaped (not vertically extended as in Old World Nemopalpus, and not trumpet shaped as in Bruchomyia and Eutonnoiria), approximately as long the aedeagus, which is as long as or slightly shorter than the gonocoxite; epandrium elongate. Vasa deferentia internally setose at proximal end (though not in every species). Parameres heavily sclerotized, in lateral view, with vertical and horizontal projections (Fig. 4 b). An apically bifid aedeagus as long as the gonostylus and the basal aedeagal sclerite was mentioned for B. patriciae. B. nearcticus with short, trifid gonostyli and B. youngi with remarkable blade-like ventral appendages of the gonocoxites.
Females of probably all species (only few unambiguously discernable) possess an elongate, slightly sclerotized spermatheca with a long slit and differently sized internal fields of strong elongate setae protruding inward (Fig. 6 d). The section towards the spermathecal duct is not narrower, and according to the descriptions of de León (1950) this pattern seems to be the same for B. nearcticus, B. arroyoi, B. mopani and B. moralesi. Spermatheca of B. patriciae is externally setose. Probably all species with tufts of modified setae on either side of tergite 9 (lateral to the primary gonopore) that were as well mentioned for B. dampfianus (Fairchild 1952), and occur in several other species.
description: Published as part of Wagner, Rüdiger & Stuckenberg, Brian, 2016, Cladistic analysis of Subfamily Bruchomyiinae (Diptera: Psychodidae), pp. 151-174 in Zootaxa 4092 (2) on pages 163-165, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/260836