Empis (Enoplempis) submira Sinclair & Brooks & Cumming 2021, sp. nov.

Empis (Enoplempis) submira sp. nov.

(Figs 16, 17, 26, 27, 39, 42)

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Type material. HOLOTYPE, Ƌ labelled: “ CALIF: Sierra Co. / Shenanigan Flat / 2 mi W Indian Vy. [ca. 39°30ʹN 121°01ʹW]/ 17-VI-[19] 67 P. Opler”; “ UC Berkeley/ EMEC 1188984 / [data matrix code]”; “ HOLOTYPE / Empis (Enoplempis) / submira Sinclair,/ Brooks, Cumming” (EMEC).

Diagnosis. This species is most similar to E. (En.) mira and is distinguished by the right hind femur without an anteroventral digitiform lobe (Fig. 26) and right hind tibia with subapical swelling directed horizontally, without black thorn-like setae.

Description. Wing length 5.7 mm. Male. Head with dense greyish pruinescence on face, frons, occiput and postgena. Narrowly dichoptic, eye with ommatidia slightly enlarged ventrally. Frons divergent towards antennae; below ocellar triangle slightly wider than anterior ocellus, bearing short setulae along inner margin of eye. Face slightly divergent towards mouthparts; bare, with oral margin pale and shiny. Ocellar triangle with greyish pruinescence, with pair of divergent ocellar setae and pair of shorter posterior setulae. Occiput bearing row of slender postocular setae; remaining upper occipital setae black, long and stout. Scape pale brown; pedicel, postpedicel and stylus dark brown. Scape about 2× longer than pedicel; postpedicel nearly 4× longer than basal width, or 2.3× longer than stylus. Palpus yellow, with dark setulae. Proboscis largely yellow; apex of labrum reddish brown; labellum with dark setae.

Thorax yellow in ground-colour, largely clothed in whitish pruinescence; all major setae black. Scutum with narrow dark brown median vitta and row of dark spots at base of dc, with dark spot at base of npl and pal. Pleura yellow, with thin whitish pruinescence. Proepisternum with several short, dark setae; prosternum bare. Antepronotum with row of stout dark setae. Postpronotum with 3–4 short, dark setae and 1 long seta. Scutum with short, fine biserial acr; dc uniserial, similar to acr, first anterior dc longer than posterior dc, postsutural dc increasing in length posteriorly; 3 posterior npl, with several shorter anterior setae; 1 presut spal; 1 psut spal; 1 pal, with 1 short setula. Scutellum with 2 pairs of sctl, apical pair stouter, less than twice length of lateral pair. Laterotergite with 3 long, dark and several shorter setae. Anterior and posterior spiracles pale.

Legs long, entirely yellow, except for dark ring at trochanter-femur junction and extreme apices of femora; tarsomere 5 darkened. Coxae with numerous dark lateral setae, longer and stouter along apical anterior margins. Hind trochanter unmodified. Femora with distinct white ventral pile. Fore femur with anteroventral and posteroventral rows of fine setae, posteroventral setae longer. Fore tibia with pile of soft ventral setulae, with 2–3 anterodorsal and posterodorsal setae and several preapical setae. Fore tarsomere not swollen, narrower than fore tibia, shorter than remaining tarsomeres combined; all tarsomeres with pile of soft ventral setulae. Mid femur with anteroventral row of setae of various lengths, with cluster of longer basal setae; posteroventral face with distinct row of well separated setae, shorter than femur width. Mid tibia with pale ventral setae and darker setae intermixed, shorter than width of tibia; 2–3 anterodorsal, 2–3 posterodorsal and several preapical setae. Hindlegs asymmetrical, tibiae geniculate at base. Left hind femur with brush of short, thick ventral setae beyond mid-length, extending onto short posteroventral lobe (Figs 16, 17). Left hind tibia sinuous with dense black ventral setae, with posteroventral row of short black spines on distal half; preapex with thin posteroventral flange (Figs 16, 17). Right hind femur with proximal two-thirds clothed in numerous short, black ventral setae; without short anteroventral digitiform lobe on apical third; deeply excavated ventrally beyond mid-length, with only a few scattered setae (Fig. 26); apical fourth with paint-brush-like tuft of black posteroventral setae on short prominence (Fig. 27); apical third with tuft of black posteroventral setae, longer than width of femur; apical third with long posterior setae. Right hind tibia with large thumb-like anteroventral lobe distal to mid-length without spine-like apical projections; flattened preapical anteroventral flange folds up against setal tuft of femur (Figs 26, 27); transverse ridge distal to thumb-like projection with short spine-like setae, longer on posterior side. Tarsomeres 1–5 of fore and hind legs without rows of anteroventral and posteroventral spine-like setae; tarsomere 1 with several pairs of spine-like anteroventral and posteroventral setae on midleg.

Wing clear with yellowish veins, mostly well sclerotized; CuA+CuP fading out prior to wing margin. Basal costal seta short, but stouter and longer than surrounding costal setae. R 5 and M 1 parallel near wing margin; R 5 ending beyond wing tip; radial fork acute. Halter yellow.

Abdomen yellow with longest posteromarginal setae on tergite 2, decreasing in length posteriorly. Posteromarginal setae on segment 8 longer than length of sclerites. Pregenital segments unmodified; sclerites of segment 8 narrowly fused anterolaterally. Terminalia (Fig. 39) yellow with cercus darker. Cercus narrow, linear, posterior end tapered to narrow tip, with setae on inner face; clothed in dark setae, longer than width of cercus. Hypoproct without setae. Subepandrial sclerite with process projecting obliquely from ventral margin of cercus; short, less than half distance to epandrial margin. Epandrial lamella subrectangular, posterior margin straight, without process; setae moderately long, some about half width of lamella. Hypandrium short, apical margin slightly rounded, about 0.5× as long as height of epandrium; base with several setae, shorter than length of hypandrium. Phallus deeply attenuated near base, middle section broad and parallel-sided; apical third deeply attenuated, flexed nearly at right angle, forming narrow bowl-like apex, with well sclerotized anterior margin; apex not emerging beyond epandrium; ejaculatory apodeme broad, flattened plate, not Y-shaped, one-half length of epandrium.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. This species name is in reference to its similar colour and male terminalia to the species, E. mira.

Distribution. This species is known only from the type locality in Sierra County, California (Fig. 42).