(C) 2010 Irina Brake. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Stomosis arachnophila Brake sp. n. (Diptera, Milichiidae) is described from Western Australia. The species is kleptoparasitic on araneid spiders. The paper is an example for a new approach in cybertaxonomy which includes generation of manuscripts within a Virtual Research Environment (Scratchpads), semantic enhancement, parallel release of the publication on paper and online accompanied with registration of new taxa with ZooBank.
New species, Australia, kleptoparasitism
The milichiid genus Stomosis
belongs to the subfamily Phyllomyzinae
and includes five described species that occur in the New World and
Australia. There are more than ten undescribed species just in Australia
(
During a field trip to southwestern Australia, MvT collected more
than 200 Stomosis
specimens belonging to at least three species, Stomosis vittata
Malloch and two or three undescribed species of which one was used for a
phylogenetic analysis of Milichiidae
(
The terminology follows
Specimens are deposited in the Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra (ANIC), Natural History Museum, London (BMNH), University of Bielefeld (UBI), National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (USNM), and Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM).
This paper including the species description was prepared on the Milichiidae
Online Scratchpad (www.milichiidae.info) as a test of a new method to
publish nomenclatural acts described on taxonomic websites (
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:267B9A8B-372C-45EC-BFE5-661AF13CABC8
Holotype, male: Australia. Western Australia: SSW' Walpole, Coalmine Beach at northern bank of Nornalup Inlet, Caravan Park, also S' Walpole Inlet [34°59'S, 116°45'E], 9.III.1989, X649, M. von Tschirnhaus (UBI_IBC_3220248, ANIC). The holotype is in good condition and is glued to a paper triangle on a pin.
Paratypes (in ethanol if not otherwise stated): same data as holotype, 10♂11♀ (UBI_IBC_3220246-7, ZSM, in ethanol, UBI_IBC_3220249-55, BMNH, ANIC, USNM glued to paper triangle). Australia. Western Australia: SSW' Walpole, Coalmine Beach at northern bank of Nornalup Inlet, Caravan Park, also S' Walpole Inlet [34°59'S, 116°45'E], 9.III.1989, X651, M. von Tschirnhaus, 5♂11♀ (UBI_IBC_3220119-20, BMNH); west coast, Canal Rocks, 4.5 km SSW' Yallingup, 12.4 km SW' Dunsborough [33°41'S; 115°00'E], sweep net, 21.II.1989, X631, M. von Tschirnhaus, 2♂ (UBI_IBC_3220111, USNM); west coast, Canal Rocks Beach Resort, 50 meter S' of beach, 3 km SSW' Yallingup, 10 km SW' Dunsborough [33°40'S, 115°01'E], sweep net, 23.II.1989, X632, M. von Tschirnhaus, 1♂4♀ (UBI_IBC_3220112-3, ZSM); western Stirling Range, Mondurup Peak, highest rock ridge, 800 to 817 m.a.s.l. [34°24'S, 117°47'E], sweep net, 26.III.1989, X676, M. von Tschirnhaus, 1♂2♀ (UBI_IBC_3220128-9, ZSM); south coast, Hopetoun, caravan park at sea site [33°57'S, 120°07'E], sweep net, 31.III.1989, X681, M. von Tschirnhaus, 1♂1♀ (UBI_IBC_3220130-1, ANIC).
Non type material: same data as holotype, 35♂12♀1? (UBI_IBC_3220117-9, UBI, in ethanol), 3♂3♀ (UBI_IBC_3220256-61, BMNH, glued to paper triangle).
Differing from congeners in the combination of yellow anterior margin of frons, completely brown basoflagellomere, completely brown thorax and shape of male terminalia.
Coloration and vestiture: Head brown posteriorly, yellow anteriorly, slightly microtomentose except for frons. Frons usually brown on posterior 2/3 and yellow on anterior third of frons, but in a few specimens the frons is completely yellow except for a brown ocellar triangle and orbital plates; lunule yellow, face light brown; gena yellow except for posterior margin; antenna brown; palpus yellow with narrow brown tip and proboscis light brown. Thorax completely brown, slightly microtomentose except for shiny area posterior to base of fore coxa, wing and calypter hyaline, veins brown, halter white, legs black except for lighter ventral side of fore coxa and yellow narrow bases of all tibiae as well as distal tip of fore tibia, and all basitarsi. Abdomen with all tergites and sternites brown, slightly microtomentose except for anterior half of synsternite 7/8 and of epandrium.
Head: Frons with 3 orbital setae, posterior seta lateroreclinate, the medial seta lateroclinate, anterior seta lateroproclinate, and 2 medioclinate frontal setae, postocellar setae medioclinate (cruciate). Arista about 2.5x as long as basoflagellomere width, pubescence on arista very short. Tip of ocellar triangle nearly reaching anterior third of frons. Gena height 0.13–0.15x eye height (Brake 2000, Pl. 1D).
Thorax: 2 dc, 1 prsc, 1 pprn, 1 prs, 1 sa, 1 pa, 1 keps setae, posterior prsc about a third as long as posterior dc, seta between posterior prsc and posterior dc absent.
Wing (
Male abdomen: Sternite 5 divided into a narrow anterior and a narrow posterior part. Anterior part bent behind sternite 4 and covered with setulae, which may be part of a gland (Brake 2000, Pl. 12A). Male genitalia as in Figs. 1-3; distiphallus membranous and tubular, about as wide and 6–7x as long as epandrium length, with many setae at apex.
Size. 2.0–2.5 mm.
Stomosis arachnophila sp. n.: 1 male genitalia, lateral view 2 tip of distiphallus, apical view 3 distiphallus, lateral view. Scale: 0.1mm.
Australia (Western Australia).
The species name, arachnophila, is an adjective derived from the Greek arachnae = spider and philos = loving, referring to the kleptoparasitic behaviour of the species.
Field observations by M. von Tschirnhaus for sample X651: "16 milichiids are flying in front of a huge spider (Araneidae), which sits in the middle of her web. Finally the flies alight on a winged ant, which is caught in the web and is still alive, though hardly moves. There are several dead ants of the same species in the web as well as a number of silvery Therediidae. The female spider (deposited in UBI) stays for a long time in her place even when provoked. There are up to three milichiids on one prey, that has to be freshly dead. The two flies in sample X649, which were sitting on a Phonognatha (Araneidae) case (made from dead eucalyptus leaves) probably belong to the same species. 20 more cases were searched unsuccessfully. One milichiid alights on spider leg and runs up and down the leg dabbing, unheeded by the spider. One milichiid on ant with regurgitation droplet."
As described in the field notes, adults of the new species, Stomosis arachnophila, are kleptoparasitic on spiders.
Kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another animal, is
present in the stem species pattern of the Milichiidae
and may also be present in the stem species pattern of its sister
family, the Chloropidae
(
In almost all cases it is only the female fly that is kleptoparasitic, possibly because kleptoparasitism provides the females with protein needed to produce eggs. In the present example, however, males and females were aspirated directly from the prey. It is possible that in this case the males are attracted to the spider's web in order to find mating partners.
Kleptoparasitism on spiders is known to be a habit of adults of
some species in the genera Desmometopa,
Milichiella,
Neophyllomyza,
Paramyia,
Phyllomyza
(
We are grateful to Wayne Mathis, John Swann and Paul Williams for reviewing this paper.
The Scratchpad version of this publication is available on the Milichiidae Online website at: http://milichiidae.info/node/15295
Photos of a male specimen are available at: http://milichiidae.info/node/14995, http://milichiidae.info/node/14996 and http://milichiidae.info/node/14997. A distribution map is available on the Stomosis arachnophila species page at http://milichiidae.info.