Phrudoneura collessi Bickel, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bickel, Daniel J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Dolichopodidae
Phrudoneura
Phrudoneura collessi

description: Phrudoneura collessi Bickel, sp. nov.
(Figs 1 b, 2, 4b)
Type material. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: HOLOTYPE: 3, Millstream, 7.IV.1971, at light, D.H. Colless; PARATYPES: 3, Millstream, 25.X.1970; 3, Ƥ, Crossing Pool, Millstream, 21.X.1970, at light, D.H. Colless; 2 3, Millstream-Chichester NP, McKenzie Spring, 21°20' 18"S, 117°12'38"E, Malaise trap over spring, rocky ravine, 299 m, 7–12.V.2003, Lambkin, Yeates & Recsei (all ANIC).
Additional material. AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: 3 3, Ƥ, Brunswick Heads, VIII.1963, Haverstein (ANIC). Queensland: 3, Bundaberg, 25.V.1972, Frauca; 2 3, Baldwin Swamp Faunal Res., nr. Bundaberg, 10.X.1972, Frauca; 3, Ingham, 9.VIII.1969, Harley; 3, Big Mitchell Ck, Mareeba-Molloy Rd, 4.V.1967, Colless; Ƥ, 7–14 miles W of Herberton, via Watsonville, 1.V.1967, Colless (all ANIC); 2 3, 5 miles W of Ravenshoe, 6.XII.1962, Ross & Cavagnaro (CAS); Ƥ, Gatton, 9–16.IX.1981, yellow pan trap, in potato crop (QDPI); Ƥ, Woodgate NP, Hoppy Larks Ck & Burrum River, 3.XII.1992, yellow pans nr mangroves, Bickel (AMS); Western Australia: 3, Ƥ, Karijini Natl Park: Weano Gorge Rd: 22°21'16"S 118°15'11"E, Lambkin & Weir, Malaise over running creek above Hancock Gorge, 699 m, 15–20.V.2003 (ANIC 2130).
Description. Male: length: 2.1 mm; wing: 2.3 mm x 0.9 mm.
Head: head almost circular in anterior view, but slightly wider than high; dorsal postcranium flat, and slightly concave dorsally; vertex and frons dark brown and covered with grey pruinosity; postorbitals mostly pale yellow, but dorsalmost three postorbitals black; pair converging postvertical setae, positioned mediad of postorbital row; pair strong vertical and pair strong diverging ocellar setae present; male eyes distinctly separated by face and clypeus; eye facets more or less uniform; face-clypeus brown and covered with grey pruinosity, and with distal margin of clypeus yellowish; palp yellow with short black setae and distinct apical seta; proboscis brownish; antenna mostly brown, but variously with yellowish coloration on mediodistal margin of scape, and medioventral surface of pedicel and first flagellomere; scape dorsally bare; first flagellomere enlarged subtriangular, and covered in microtrichia; arista arising dorsobasally on first flagellomere, with short hairs, and about as long as head height.
Thorax: dorsum and pleura mostly dark brown and covered with grey pruinosity; metepimeron yellow ventrally (above CIII), becoming brown dorsally; posterior slope of mesonotum not depressed; ac biseriate, with 8– 9 regular pairs; 5 dc present, slightly decreasing in size anteriorly; field of short setae present anterior slope of thorax; 1 pa, 2 sa (with anterior sa much shorter than posterior sa), 2 sr, 2 npl, 1 hm, 1 pm present; median scutellar seta strong, lateral present as weak pale seta, about one-fifth size of median; proepisternum with short black seta dorsally (usually not visible since covered by head, and with stronger black ventral seta above join with CI.
Legs: CII brown laterally but yellow on anterior surface; CI and CIII and reminder of legs mostly yellow, but FIII with dark brown apical “knee”, and distal tarsomeres infuscated; vestiture black; CI with short anterior setae and 3 longer distal setae; CII with short anterior setae and with two setae along distolateral ridge, with basal seta at 1/3 and stronger seta near ½; CIII with strong lateral seta near 1/3, and trochanter III with short lateral seta; I: 2.7/ 2.4/ 1.3; 0.6; 0.5; 0.4; 0.4; FI with short av and pv seta at 5/6, and with short subapical posterior seta; TI with ad-pd setal pair at 1/3, with ad seta stronger than pd seta, and with short ad setal serration from 1/3 to apex; II: 3.5/ 3.8/ 1.7; 1.0; 0.9; 0.5; 0.4; FII with strong anterior subapical seta, and with shorter av and pv seta at 7/8; TII with short ad-pd setal pair at 1/5, very strong ad-pd setal pairs at ¼ and ½, ventral seta at 3/8, and with subapical corona of long pd, dorsal ad av, and pv seta; tarsomeres IIt1-4 each with ring of short apical setae; III: 3.5; 4.6; 1.0/ 1.5/ 1.0/ 0.7/ 0.4; FIII with strong anterior subapical seta, and with shorter av seta at 5/6; TIII with 4 strong ad-pd setal pairs at 1/5, 2/5, 2/3, and subapically, and with strong ventral seta at ½ and shorter ventral at ¾, and with long apical av and pv setae; IIIt1 with some short ventral hairs (MSSC); IIIt2 distinctly longer than IIIt1.
Wing: membrane hyaline; R2+3 ends in anterior margin at 5/6; R4+5 ends just anterior to apex; R4+5 and M diverging slightly from base; M ends in membrane halfway between dm-cu crossvein and wing apex (MSSC); anal angle weak; CuAx ratio near 0.6; lower calypter yellow with fan of brown setae; halter yellow.
Abdomen: terga 1 and 2 mostly yellowish, sometimes with dorsal infuscation; terga 2–5 mostly dark brown with yellow posterior margin; sterna 1–5 yellow; tergum 6 narrow, hoodlike; segment 7 with longer tergum and shorter sternum; sternum 8 ovate with distinctive inverted V-shaped internal carina at base, and covering left basal hypopygial foramen; hypopygium (Fig. 1 b) mostly dark brown with pale yellow cercus; epandrium subcircular; hypandrium forming short hood over elongate curved phallus; ventral distal margin of epandrium with 3 pedunculate setae (= epandrial lobe setae) on raised ledge; surstylus short, bearing various setae and modified pinnate seta; subepandrial sclerite subrectangular, with row of dorsal setae; cercus subtriangular and highly setose.
Female. Similar to male except as noted: face and clypeus more widely separated; vein M reaching wing margin just behind apex, and without flexion or bosse alaire; oviscapt divided into two hemitergites, each with crest of four spine-like setae.
Remarks. Phrudoneura collessi has a rather unusual distribution, which is across northern Australia, but apparently south of the monsoonal belt (Fig. 2). It it is found in the Cairns district rainforests where it is possibly sympatric with P. abbreviata, then down along the Queensland coast to northernmost New South Wales, and with a strange disjunction in two locations along the Fortescue River drainage in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. This latter region, especially the Millstream type locality, appears to be a refugium and supports a richer and more unusual fauna than might be expected in such an arid region (this will be discussed further in a paper, in prep., on the Pilbara Dolichopodidae).
Phrudoneura collessi is probably the sister taxon of the more tropical P. abbreviata, as both share distinct yellow postorbital setae and similar hypopygia.
description: Published as part of Bickel, Daniel J., 2013, Phrudoneura (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) from Australia and Melanesia in Zootaxa 3680 (1), DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3680.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/218308