Scipopus (Scipopus) s. str. Enderlein, 1922

Scipopus Enderlein, 1922: 208

(type species: Scipopus erythrocephalus (Fabricius, 1805)).

Scipopus – Enderlein 1922: 165 (key), 208 (diagnosis, key). — Frey 1927: 68 (keyed), 74 (list). — Cresson 1930: 324 (diagnosis). — Curran 1934a: 450 (keyed), 451 (key); 1934b: 305 (key). — Hennig 1934: 72 (keyed), 321 (diagnosis, key). — Aczél 1949: 339 (catalog); 1951: 534, 538 (key). — Steyskal 1968: 48.15 (catalog). — Albuquerque 1971: 89 (diagnosis). — Schumann 1988: 115 (list). — Marshall 2010: 810 (key), 812 (notes). — Ferro & de Carvalho 2014: 53 (key), 59 (diagnosis, list). — Martinez-Alava & Serna 2015: 345 (distribution). — Marshall et al. 2016: 543 (catalog). — Martinez et al. 2020: 180 (phoretic relationships).

Diagnosis

Frontal vitta orange. Thorax, abdominal tergites, wings and legs dark brown or black. Thoracic pleuron with varying patterns of white and brown microtrichosity; anepisternum always white microtrichose on majority of anteroventral ⅓ and anteroventral margin, primarily brown microtrichose on at least posterior ⅓. Thorax stout, height greater than length (thorax ratio ≤0.93). Common spermathecal duct rugose, clearly delineated from smooth paired duct; single spermathecal duct arising from basal portion of paired duct.

Remarks

Scipopus was originally diagnosed by the bare arista, short anal cell (cua) and very short third costal sector, but all of these character states also occur in combination in other species outside of Scipopus. Most relatively large black or dark brown micropezids with a contrasting orange or red head belong to Scipopus s. lat., and all species of Scipopus s. str. have this characteristic colour combination. The characteristic pattern of white microtrichosity on the mesopleuron provides a new, reliably diagnostic character for the subgenus.

Description

LENGTH. 9–16 mm.

HEAD. Antenna orange. Frontal vitta dull, orange, microtrichose. Orbital plate dull, orange, microtrichose (Fig. 10A), or with shiny, bare anterior patches (Fig. 11C). Anterior frontal vitta with scattered black setulae. Epicephalon orange to black, either shiny and clearly delineated from upper frontal vitta (Fig. 7C) or dull and not clearly delineated (Fig. 17B). Paracephalon orange to black, shiny, slightly convex (Fig. 22H) to strongly convex with upturned bumps (Fig. 29C). Head chaetotaxy always including inner vertical, postocellar, upper fronto-orbital seta, and 1–2 lower fronto-orbital seta; outer vertical seta usually present (absent in S. (S.) wokomung sp. nov. and sometimes absent in S. (S.) chalybeus). Palpus narrow (length 3.6–6.0× width), nearly parallel-sided, rounded and tapered apically, pale microtrichose and black setulose. Clypeus orange to black, usually twice as wide as high, sometimes much higher than wide (as in S. (S.) convexus sp. nov. and S. (S.) nigripennis) (Fig. 15A), usually bare medially and microtrichose posterolaterally (entirely white microtrichose in S. (S.) chalybeus) (Fig. 13A).

THORAX. Cervical sclerite dark brown or black, white microtrichose, subquadrate, usually relatively flat or slightly convex, but anterior part swollen in females of S. (S.) chalybeus (Fig. 13C). Mesothorax robust, only slightly tapered anteriorly. Thorax ratio (length/height) always less than 0.93. Anterior edge of mesonotum elevated (most clearly seen laterally), with surface becoming anteriorly humped (Fig. 13G), convex (Fig. 7D) or relatively flat (Fig. 33B). Postpronotal lobe distinct, dark brown or black, raised, slightly tapered anteriorly, length ~2.0–2.5× height (Fig. 30A). Notopleuron brown or black, often with interspecifically varying patterns of silvery or pale brown microtrichia (Figs 27, 34G). Pleuron dark brown or black with variable patterns of white and brown microtrichosity; anepisternum always white on most of anteroventral ⅓ and anteroventral margin, brown on majority of posterior ⅓ (Fig. 7E). Legs dark brown or black, fore and hind tarsomere 1 partially or entirely white, or entirely black or brown dorsally, often with ventral golden fringe. Scutellum with two long, strong apical setae (2.0× length of scutellum), and 1–3 pairs of short, lateral or dorsolateral discal setulae.

WING. Uniformly brown infuscate.

ABDOMEN. Tergites dark brown or black. T1 with fine white, and/or black or dark brown setae, remainder of abdomen with short black or dark brown setulae. T1 (especially posterior margin), posterior margin or corners of T2, anterior margin of T3, entirety or lateral edges of T4, and entirety of T5–6 usually very indisctinctly white microtrichose, more obvious in some species (as in S. (S.) planus sp. nov. and S. (S.) convexus sp. nov.). Pleuron with P1, upper half of P2 and sometimes upper half of P3–6 either almost entirely black, pale grey, or off-white and dark brown (Fig. 13G).

FEMALE ABDOMEN. T1+2 1.1–2.8× length of T3. Oviscape dark brown or black, variable in dimension but tapered distally and sparsely covered in short black setulae, anterior ⅓ usually entirely or partially white microtrichose (Fig. 6A–B). Common spermathecal duct arising from bursa, roughly textured and ranging from very short (almost absent) (Fig. 11B) to very long (¾ of entire combined duct length) (Fig. 8C), clearly delineated from paired duct. Paired spermathecal duct smooth, ranging from short and wide (Fig. 17E) to long and narrow (Fig. 20B). Paired spermathecal stems bare (Fig. 17E) or with spiked or finger-like projections (Fig. 11B); paired spermatheca striate, usually spherical or ovoid (Fig. 20B), sometimes elongate (Fig.15B). Single spermathecal duct arising from basal portion of paired duct, smooth and narrow, swollen distally, ending in usually one but sometimes two finger- or bulb-like spermathecae (Fig. 14B).

MALE ABDOMEN. T1+2 1.4–2.9× length of T3. Genital fork dark brown or black, white microtrichose, arms with inner basal process (Fig. 24B), length and shape of arms and processes variable. Epandrium dark brown or black, white microtrichose and setulose, stout (length ≈ height) to elongate (length ≥ 2.0× height). Basiphallus usually small, crescent-shaped when viewed ventrally (Fig. 22F). Basal distiphallus usually very short and wide (1.0–2.0 × length of phallic bulb), ending or partially enclosing phallic bulb (Fig 10C). Phallic bulb usually short, somewhat spherical, with multiple chambers, sometimes with posterior projections (Fig. 22F). Distal distiphallus short (shorter than epandrium) to long (> 2.0× length of epandrium), usually narrow (Fig. 10C). Phallapodeme slender or broad, may or may not be expanded apically. Ejaculatory apodeme varying in size, usually with a fan-like apodeme attached to a bulbous sperm pump (Fig. 15D).