Protypusia hyalipennis Gibbs 2023, gen. et comb. nov.

Protypusia hyalipennis (Séguy, 1941) gen. et comb. nov.

Figs 11, 48

Oligodranes hyalipennis Séguy, 1941: 9.

Etymology

From Latin; ‘ hyalinus ’ = ‘glassy’ and ‘ penna ’ = ‘feather’ or ‘wing’; ‘clear wings’.

Type material

Lectotype (here designated)

MOROCCO • ♂; “Avril/Maroc, env. D’Agadir, foret d’Ademime/Museum Paris, 1939, L. Berland / Type/ Oligodranes hyalipennis ♂ E. Séguy vid., Type.”; MNHN.

Paralectotypes

MOROCCO • 1 ♀; “Avril/Maroc, env. D’Agadir, forêt d’Ademime/Museum Paris, 1939, L. Berland / Oligodranes hyalipennis ♀ E. Séguy vid., Cotype/Genitalia slide, No. 870801-9”; MNHN • 1 ♀; “Avril/ Maroc, Agadir/Museum Paris, 1939, L. Berland / Oligodranes hyalipennis ♀ E. Séguy vid., Cotype”; MNHN.

Other material examined

MOROCCO • 1 ♂; “1899, Tanger/ Oligodranes ?, det. Becker / Parageron pleskei sp. nov. ♂, S. Paramonov /Zool. Mus., Berlin”; ZMHB.

Redescription

MEASUREMENTS. Body length: 2.3–2.4 mm. Wing length: 2.5 mm.

Male

HEAD. Gena plus mouth margin about as broad as the apical diameter of the scape, the shining brownish mouth margin broader than the narrow dusted gena. Frons relatively narrow, at antennal insertions about as deep as the depth of the postpedicel, covered with silky grey dust, narrowing down eye margin to merge with darker grey dusted occiput. Eyes meeting for about 10–12 facets, significantly more than the length of the vertex. Ocellar tubercle dark in ground colour, dark brown dusted, all ocelli contiguous with the eye margins. White hairs on ocellar tubercle about as long as width of vertex at its broadest. Eye facets large in upper half, small in lower half, the division between them fairly well marked. Occiput dark in ground colour, densely coated with dark grey-brown dust, a blackish triangle behind ocelli. Occiput covered with silvery hairs, upper ones short, those on ventral side of head as long as length of postpedicel. Antennae blackish with a brown cast, postpedicel significantly longer than scape and pedicel together, a small sharp, triangular point dorsally immediately beyond the subapical sulcus (this could be mistaken for an articulating style as seen in Apolysis). Palps small and slender, brownishyellow with a few inconspicuous white hairs apically. Proboscis not exceptional, about twice as long as the head, hairless dorsally, the basoventral membrane brownish-yellow.

THORAX. Dark ground colour obscured by dense brown dust, notopleuron and anterior slope of mesonotum conspicuously grey dusted. This grey dusted area extends rearwards along the acrostichal lines fading out at level of transverse suture and along the dorsocentral lines to the scutellum, fading slightly. The dark brown paramedian vittae narrower than the grey acrostichal and dorsocentral lines. Dark brown antehumeral vittae not interrupted at thoracic suture. Hairs of mesonotum white, fairly long, acrostichals and dorsocentrals irregularly biserial, hairs on hind third and lateral parts of mesonotum more general, but area above wing sparsely haired. Scutellum dark brown dusted similar to adjacent parts of mesonotum, sparse white hairs as those on front of mesonotum, disc of scutellum bare. Pleura grey concolourous with notopleuron and occiput, posterior two-thirds of the anepisternum, with white hairs.

WING. Membrane with faint brownish tinge, the veins brown. Crossvein r-m near base of the discal cell, opposite m-cu. Anal lobe very well developed with conspicuously convex margin, much broader than anal cell.

HALTERE. Pale yellow, base of stem slightly infuscated, knob with a clear dark brown dorsal spot. LEGS. Dark brown, coxae grey dusted like pleura. Femora and tibia rather less densely dusted, very tip of femora and narrow base of tibia yellow, very inconspicuously so on hind legs. Legs sparsely clothed with white hairs, longer on the coxae, fore and mid-femora posteriorly, hind femora antero-ventrally. Tibia and tarsi with short adpressed white hairs.

ABDOMEN. Dark brown dusted with second to seventh tergites with narrow, dull yellow margins, broadest laterally, very obscure dorsally. All tergites with white hairs longer then the length of respective tergite, longest laterally, shorter and sparser on disc. Sternites similar to tergites but distinctly more grey dusted.

GENITALIA. Typical size for holoptic Protypusia gen. nov., concolourous with abdomen, densely brown dusted, tip of epandrium dull yellow-brown, gonocoxite long-haired (like tergites), epandrium shorthaired (like tibia).

Female

Distinctly dichromatic. Gena yellow, frons wider than postpedicel, almost as wide as the three antennal segments together. Hairs on ocellar tubercle shorter, barely as long as distance between hind ocelli. Mesonotum paler grey brown with well-marked narrow dark brown paramedian vittae extending back to level of wing bases. Laterally are fainter brown antehumeral vittae interrupted at the transverse suture. Apical yellow margins of tergites a little broader, hairing of thorax, legs and abdomen significantly shorter than in male.

Remarks

A small, delicate species known from just four specimens, two males and two females. The male epiphallic complex is typical of the genus, the gonostyli suggest a close affinity with Pro. vagans. The female genitalia diverge from the most common type within Protypusia gen. nov., the tip of the genital fork being poorly sclerotised and not strongly angled. Female Pro. vagans also has this type of genitalia further supporting the affinity of these two species.

Distribution

Morocco.