Research Article |
Corresponding author: Jon K. Gelhaus ( gelhaus@ansp.org ) Academic editor: Torsten Dikow
© 2016 Rudolf Rozkošný, Martin Hauser, Jon K. Gelhaus.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Rozkošný R, Hauser M, Gelhaus JK (2016) Caloparyphus palaearcticus sp. n. (Diptera, Stratiomyidae), the first record for the soldier fly genus in the Palaearctic. ZooKeys 594: 111-122. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.594.7750
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Caloparyphus palaearcticus sp. n. is described from Russia and two localities in Mongolia and is the first representative of this genus in the Palaearctic and the only species found outside the New World. The morphological characters of the species are described and illustrated, and relationships to related species of Caloparyphus are discussed.
Palaearctic Region, Caloparyphus , Oxycerini , taxonomy, new species, Russia, Mongolia, soldier fly
The genus Caloparyphus belongs to the subfamily Stratiomyinae and the tribe Oxycerini.
Recently we obtained males and females from Palaearctic Asia (Russian Kamchatka and Mongolia) that undoubtedly belong to Caloparyphus. They display all the main diagnostic characters of the genus (apical flagellomere style-like, antennal pedicel not elongated, scutellar spines separated by a distance as great as the length of spines, abdomen black with yellow oblique lateral spots on tergites 3 and 4, aedeagus tripartite distally). We can thus prove the occurrence of Caloparyphus in the Palaearctic Asia and describe a new species.
Part of the material was collected during the PIRE Mongolia project (http://mongolia.bio.upenn.edu), University of Pennsylvania (http://mongolia.bio.upenn.edu), and deposited in the collections of the Mongolian Aquatic Insect Survey (http://clade.acnatsci.org/mongolia) (Principal Investigator and Director of MAIS: Jon K. Gelhaus), the latter a project to document the Mongolian aquatic invertebrate diversity with respect to evolution, ecology and water quality (http://clade.ansp.org/entomology/mongolia/mais_home.html). More than 600 specimens of Mongolian Stratiomyidae have been examined and identified through the MAIS project and results are being prepared for publishing.
The notation in brackets for Arkhangai Mongolia paratypes refers to their map coordinates on the Mongolian national government topographic map 47T
The examined specimens were studied with Olympus and Nikon SMZ 1500 Stereomicroscopes. Photographs were taken through a Canon 450D and a Nikon DS-5M camera and were edited by CombineZ, Helicon Focus and Adobe Photoshop CS 4 software. The terminalia of the examined specimens were macerated in 10% KOH, rinsed with water and then preserved in glycerin and placed in a microvial on the specimen pin.
Morphological terminology follows that of
Holotype male (Figs
Paratypes: 1 male, Mongolia: Hövsgöl Aimag, Hövsgöl Nuur (lake), east shore area, Dalbay Gol (river) valley, 51°01'40.5"N, 100°45'60.0"E, 1670 m, 22.vii.2007, D. Song (ID 263) (deposited in
Caloparyphus palaearcticus is the only species in the genus found in the Palaearctic Region. The males can be easily distinguished from all the other species of this genus by the two distinct brownish spots of denser microtrichia on the wing membrane (Fig.
Male. (Figs
Thorax: Shining black with two pairs of bright yellow scutal vittae. Dorsal vittae dilated in anterior third and reaching beyond transverse suture. Each lateral vitta touching yellow postpronotal callus anteriorly and transverse suture posteriorly. Also postalar callus intensively yellow, with a pointed anterior projection. Scutellum yellow but its narrow base and lateral parts black, scutellar spines yellow but blackish distally. Pleural part of thorax predominantly shining black, yellow line along upper margin of anepisternum abruptly dilated in front of wing base. Katepimeron and upper posterior part of katepisternum contrastingly yellow. Thoracic pile moderately long, mainly whitish but black and upright on scutum though similar whitish hairs on anterior part and along notopleura also visible. Wing membrane hyaline, veins brownish to pale yellow, stigma yellowish. No vein arising from discal cell reaching wing margin. Wing microtrichia considerably reduced in basal half of wing membrane, limited to small distal areas in basal radial and basal medial cells, sparse microtrichia in central area of posterior cubital cell and distal half of anal cell. Apical half of wing membrane almost completely covered with dense microtrichia but anterior cubital cell bare along upper and inner margins. Especially dense microtrichia visible at distal part of basal medial cell and along anterior lower corner of discal cell as two distinct darkened microtrichial patches (cf. Figs
Abdomen: About as long as broad, sub-circular, black with yellow pattern (Fig.
Terminalia: Simple, without distinct modifications. Epandrium with a membranous incision before posterior corner on each side distally, proctiger subtriangular and cerci relatively short, oval (Fig.
Length: body 6.5–6.7 mm, wing 5.7–5.8 mm.
Female. Similar to male, except for typical sexual dimorphism. Face yellow (Fig.
Length: body 7.9–8.0 mm, wing 6.9–7.0 mm.
There are no doubts that the male holotype and paratypes are conspecific but some small differences in color pattern were found in the male paratype from Mongolia (e.g. dorsolateral vittae are separated from the yellow postpronotal calli and a spot at the katepisternum and a small yellow basal spot on the abdomen are missing). Similar variability is commonly known in many other Oxycerini. Differences in color pattern between the female and male adults are noted in the description.
The species epithet indicates the distribution of this species in the Palaearctic Region, i.e. in a different biogeographic realm in comparison with all other known species of this genus.
Eastern part of the Palaearctic Region from Mongolia to Russian Kamchatka (Fig.
The male Mongolian specimen was collected in an area of mixed steppe grassland, riparian shrubs and Larix siberica forest (Fig.
The species of the genus Caloparyphus were only revised by
Of the twelve valid species of Caloparyphus (
C. decemmaculatus: The scape and pedicel distinctly elongated and tergites 2–4 have central spots (this species might not belong into this genus);
C. tetraspilus has a black scutellum as well as four, two or no central spots on tergites 3-4 and no extended lateral markings on the tergites;
C. crotchi (Osten Sacken, 1877), C. flaviventris, C. major (Hine, 1901), C. mariposa and C. pretiosus (Banks, 1920) have the antennae distinctly longer than the head and vein R4 present;
C. greylockensis has no or very short vittae on the mesonotum;
C. crotchi has the scape twice as long as the pedicel, the mesonotal vittae ending at the suture and the male has the hind metatarsus at the apex enlarged;
C. amplus has the wing mainly bare (especially cell d) and vein R4 present;
C. atriventris, C. currani and C. crucigerus have the wing mainly bare, especially the discal cell which is devoid of microtrichia.
The species which seem to be most similar to C. palaearcticus sp. n. are the members of the crucigerus-group (C. crucigerus, C. atriventris, C. currani) and within it especially C. currani. But the yellow coloration of the face of these two species (Figs
It is remarkable that there is no other specimen of C. currani found so far except the holotype. The holotype might be just a large specimen of another described species in the crucigerus-group. The Nearctic species of the crucigerus-group need to be revised, as there are several potential new species, one in southern California, and one in Canada, and the status of C tahoensis, which is currently a synonym of C. crucigerus, should be reexamined. But this is beyond the scope of this publication, in which we wanted show that the only Palaearctic species is distinct from all described Nearctic taxa.
This disjunct distribution of Caloparyphus palaearcticus sp. n. is similar to other insects found in northern Mongolia and the Russian Far East. For example,
Our thanks are due to Daniel Song, who collected the first specimen in Mongolia while researching pollination ecology as part of the PIRE Mongolia project at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA and provided the habitat photo. We also thank our friends André van Eck (Tilburg, The Netherlands) for donating his interesting Mongolian Stratiomyidae collection to