New species of Neriidae (Diptera: Schizophora): an addition to the previously monotypic genus Protonerius

ABSTRACT

In recent years, our knowledge of the Oriental fauna of Neriidae has improved with the studies of Telostylus Bigot, 1859 and Teloneria Aczél, 1954. However, the small genera (less than three species) have never been revised and their taxonomy remains obscure. Neriidae has 18 genera of which 10 occur exclusively in the Oriental and Australasian Regions, including four monotypic genera, of which one, Protonerius de Meijere, 1924, is only known from the female holotype of Protonerius guttipennis de Meijere, 1921 from Indonesia. We here describe a second species of the genus, Protonerius opacus sp. nov., based on a female specimen from Selangor, Malaysia, which differs from the type species of the genus by the patterns of infuscate spots on the wing and the coloring of pleuron and femora. Additionally, an identification key for the two species and an updated diagnosis of the genus are provided.

KEY WORDS: Banana-stalk flies; cactus flies; Nerioidea; taxonomy

INTRODUCTION

The neriids from the Neotropical and Afrotropical Regions constitute a monophyletic lineage. The Neotropical fauna is the best-known group within Neriidae. In contrast, the Oriental lineages remain poorly known and their phylogenetic relationships remain obscure (Koch et al. 2015). Of the 18 genera of Neriidae, 10 are distributed in the Oriental and Australasian Regions. From these, four are monotypic and three are exclusively known from the Oriental Region (Steyskal 1977).

Recent studies have dealt with the taxonomy of two Oriental genera, TelostylusBigot, 1859 and TeloneriaAczél, 1954 (Sepúlveda et al. 2019, 2020). Less diverse genera (less than three species), such as IndonesicesaKoçak & Kemal, 2009, GymnoneriusHendel, 1913, NipponeriusCresson, 1926, and StypocladiusEnderlein, 1922, although relatively common in collections, have never been revised. Only Protoneriusde Meijere, 1924, remains a mystery due to the lack of material in collections and any other available information beyond the original description.

Protonerius was originally described as a subgenus of Paranerius to include the species Paranerius (Protonerius) guttipennis (de Meijere, 1921), for which no new taxonomic information has been published since its original description (de Meijere 1921, 1924, Steyskal 1977). According to de Meijere (1924), the presence of four postsutural dorsocentral setae of Paranerius (P.) guttipennis fulfilled the necessary requirements to describe a new group for the species, since the other species of Paranerius have only two postsutural dorsocentral setae. Hennig (1937) did not include any additional information on the species in his revision of the family and stated that, despite knowing Paranerius and Protonerius only from their original descriptions, it was unlikely that the genera were related. Hennig’s opinion was first formalized in the list of zoological species provided by Neave (1940) and subsequently by Steyskal (1977), who listed Protonerius as an independent genus in the catalogue of the Oriental Neriidae. Herein we describe a second species, Protonerius opacus sp. nov., from a female specimen collected in Selangor, Malaysia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study is based on material from the following institutions: (NHMUK) Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom; (ZMAN) Universiteit van Amsterdam, Institut voor Taxonomische Zoologie, Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The specimen of the new species is deposited at NHMUK. The type material of Protonerius guttipenis deposited at ZMAN was examined only through photographs. The total length of the new species was measured from the parafacial to the posterior margin of tergite 6. The terminology used in the description of the new species follows Cumming and Wood (2017).

Photographs were made using a Leica DFC 500 digital camera mounted on a Leica MZ16 stereoscope and images were edited with the computer software Leica LAS 3D Viewer and LAS Montage ver. 4.7. Illustrations were made using a drawing tube and vectorized using ©Adobe Illustrator CS6(2020).

TAXONOMY

Protonerius de Meijere

Type-species: Paranerius (Protonerius) guttipennisde Meijere, 1921: 29 (by monotypy), ♀, holotype [ZMAN]. Type locality: Indonesia, Sumatra, Talamau Mountain.

de Meijere 1924: 29 (description as subgenus of Paranerius); Hennig 1937: 245 (notes), 268 (notes); Neave 1940: 943 (listed as a genus); Steyskal 1977: 9 (catalogue).

Diagnosis. Arista white pubescent, placed subapically on dorsal margin of first flagellomere. Pedicel with distal margin convex on outer margin, dorsally; inner process of pedicel triangular and positioned dorsally. Antennal base swollen and shiny. Occiput swollen and shiny, with patch of unordered setae. Body setae very long, including five dorsocentral setae, being one presutural and four equally spaced postsutural setae, two notopleural setae and discal scutellar seta. Scapular seta and humeral setae present. Infuscate wings with two setae on basicosta.

Distribution. Malaysia (Selangor), Indonesia (Sumatra).

Key for the species of Protonerius

1. Wing infuscate on distal third and around veins r-m and dm-cu, with a hyaline median spot on cell r₄₊₅ (Figs 1, 2). First flagellomere ovoid (Fig. 5). Femora entirely brown. Pleuron with slightly and homogeneously distributed pruinescence .................... P. opacus (Figs 1−7)

1’. Wing infuscate from base to apex, with circular hyaline spots. First flagellomere rounded. Femora brown with yellow apex. Pleuron with rounded patches of dense pruinescence .................... P. guttipennis (Figs 8, 9)

Figures 1-9
Species of Protonerius. (1-7) Protonerius opacus sp. nov., holotype: (1) habitus lateral; (2) habitus dorsal; (3) head lateral; (4) head dorsal; (5) antenna outer surface; (6) antenna inner surface; (7) thorax dorsal. (8-9) Protonerius guttipennis, holotype: (8) habitus lateral; (9) habitus dorsal. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Protonerius opacus sp. nov.

Figs 1-9

http://zoobank.org/2902E5EE-0AC0-40F6-A12D-C071BF53E631

Diagnosis. Wing infuscate on distal third and around veins r-m and dm-cu, with a hyaline median spot on cell r₄₊₅ (Figs 1, 2). First flagellomere ovoid (Fig. 5). Femora entirely brown. Pleuron with slightly and homogeneously distributed pruinescence.

Description. Female (holotype). Body length 6.5 mm. Wing length 5.8 mm, width 1.8 mm.

Head. First flagellomere ovoid; pedicel short, length is the same as width; outer surface of pedicel with convex distal margin on dorsal half; distal margin of pedicel with one dorsal and one ventral outstanding setae; scape short, length is the same as width. Antennal base protruding and shiny, inner margin of antennal base dorsally separated by the visible upper face; anterior margin of frons convex; parafacial narrow and brown with median yellow stripe; fronto-orbital plate brown and sub-shiny, with three long and subequal setae; anterior third of fronto-orbital plate slightly protuberant; frontal vitta brown with median yellow V-shaped stripe narrower near ocellar tubercle; vertex brown and long, with postocellar setae separated from ocellar tubercle by twice its longitudinal diameter; inner vertical seta the longest, twice the length of inner vertical seta and one third longer than postocellar seta; occiput brown; postgena horizontally curved under the occiput, with long and black patch of setae; gena narrow and yellow with gray pruinescence; genal seta as long as anterior fronto-orbital seta; vibrissa present.

Thorax. Brown with two dorsal gray pruinose stripes on presutural scutum fading posteriorly; pleuron brown and homogeneously slightly pruinose. Dorsal presutural scutum shorter than posterior scutum; scutellum brown with median dorsal gray pruinescence. Anepisternum with yellow setulae; katepisternum with one lateral seta and one ventral seta as long as anterior dorsocentral presutural seta and several ventral yellow setulae; katatergite rounded and very swollen. Coxae brown; fore coxa with two apical setae; mid coxa with two lateral setae; hind coxa with two lateral setae, ventral seta thiner and shorter. Tegula with one seta. Legs entirely brown; femora without ventral spine-like setae; mid femur with line of anterior median setae.

Abdomen. Entirely brown, sub-shiny and setose. Oviscape brown and sub-shiny; length is twice the width.

Etymology. The name Protonerius opacus refers to the mostly dark body, from the Latin word ‘opacus’ meaning shady, dark, obscure.

Type material. Holotype, female, W. MALAYSIA: Selangor, A.E. Stubbs BMNH 1974-87 / Gentig H’lands, Hotel road, forest, 3000 feet, 25.xii.1972 [NHMUK #2933].

Remarks. Representatives of Protonerius are so rarely collected, that the two species known have been exceptionally described from female specimens. The morphology of the two species of Protonerius is remarkably different from other genera of Neriidae. Such differences include the number and size of setae, the shape of the distal margin of pedicel and the postgena, but mainly the position of the arista, which is apical in all other genera of Neriidae and slightly dorsal in Protonerius.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to Pasquale Ciliberti from ZMAN, who let us use the type material of P. guttipennis virtually. We also thank the Network of Biological Collections of Parana State − Taxonline for making available the equipment to produce and edit the photographs. This research was funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grant number 308994/2018-3.

LITERATURE CITED

• Aczél ML (1954) Results of the Archbold Expeditions: Neriidae von Neuguinea (Diptera). Treubia 22: 505-531.
• Bigot JMF (1859) Dipterorum aliquot nova Genera. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie pure et appliquée 2(11): 305-315.
• Cresson ET Jr (1926) Descriptions of new genera and species of Diptera (Ephydridae and Micropezidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 52: 249-274.
• Cumming JM, Wood DM (2017) Adult morphology and terminology. In: Kirk-Spriggs AH, Sinclair BJ (Eds) Manual of Afrotropical Diptera. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, vol. 1, 89-133.
• de Meijere JMC (1921) [De heer Meijere deelt mede, dat hij met het onderzoek der Sumatraansche Dipteren]. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 64: lii [Note on a meeting report: ‘Verslag van de zes-en-zeventigse Zomervergadering’, ppxxxiii-lxii].
• de Meijere JMC (1924) Studien über südostasiatische Dipteren XV. Dritter Beitrag zur Kenntnis der sumatranischen Dipteren. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie (Suppl.) 67: 1-64.
• Enderlein G (1922) Klassifikation der Micropeziden. Archiv Für Naturgeschicthe, A (88): 140-229.
• Hendel F (1913) H. Sauter’s Formosa-Ausbeute: Acalyptrate Musciden. Entomologische Mitteilungen 2: 33-43.
• Hennig W (1937) Übersicht über die Arten der Neriiden und über die Zoogeographie dieser Acalyptraten-Gruppe (Diptera). Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 98: 240-280.
• Koçak AÖ, Kemal M (2009) A replacement name in the family Neriidae (Diptera). Miscellaneous Papers, Centre for Entomological Studies, Ankara, 147-148.
• Koch NM, Soto IM, Ramírez MJ (2015) First phylogenetic analysis of the family Neriidae (Diptera), with a study on the issue of scaling continuous characters. Cladistics 31: 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12084
  » https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12084
• Neave SA (1940) Nomenclator zoologicus. A list of the names of genera and subgenera in zoology from the tenth edition of Linnaeus 1758 to the end of 1935. The Zoological Society of London, London, vol. 3, xiv + 957 pp.
• Sepúlveda TA, Souza DS, Echeverry A, Marinoni L, de Carvalho CJB (2020) Revalidation and taxonomic revision of Teloneria Aczél (Diptera, Neriidae), with description of two new species. European Journal of Taxonomy 717: 70-89. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.717.1099
  » https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.717.1099
• Sepúlveda TA, Souza DS, Gomes LR, Fogaça JM, de Carvalho CJB (2019) The Neriidae (Diptera) of Southeast Asia: A taxonomic revision of the genus Telostylus Europen Journal of Taxonomy 116: 281-301. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2019.032
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• Steyskal GC (1977) Family Neriidae. In: Delfinado MD, Hardy DE (Eds) A Catalog of the Diptera of the Oriental Region. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, vol. 3, 8-11.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Zoobank Register
  http://zoobank.org/0019DF9B-1068-4552-9E83-3D1B3A422FBB
• How to cite this article
  Sepúlveda TA, Marinoni L (2021) New species of Neriidae (Diptera: Schizophora): an addition to the previously monotypic genus Protonerius. Zoologia (Curitiba) 38: e21013. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-4689.v38.e21013
• Published by
  Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia at Scientific Electronic Library Online (https://www.scielo.br/zool)

Edited by

• Editorial responsibility
  Alessandra Rung

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  20 Sept 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  01 July 2021
• Accepted
  01 Sept 2021