Rheocricotopus (s. str.) pauciseta Saether, 1969

Rheocricotopus (Rheocricotopus) pauciseta Saether, 1969: 89.

Rheocricotopus (Rheocricotopus) pauciseta – Saether 1971: 1247 fig. 6c; 1250 fig. 8d; 1986: 98. — Makarchenko & Makarchenko 2005: 130. — Ashe & O’Connor 2012: 572.

Type material

Holotype CANADA – British Columbia • ♂ with Pe and Le; Haney, University of British Columbia Forestry Farm, Marion Lake; 15 July 1967; A.L. Hamilton and O.A. Saether leg.; CNC, CNC 9990.

No specimens of R. (s. str.) pauciseta were examined.

Distribution

A distribution of this species in Oriental China is highly doubtful. Thus, it remains known only from North America and the Russian Far East.

Remarks

The species was first described based on males, pupae and larvae from Nearctic Canada by Saether (1969: 89). A male from Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, used in a redescription by Makarchenko & Makarchenko (2005: 130) nearly satisfies the definition by Saether (1969, 1971).

According to Saether (1969, 1971), the male is characterized by small, indistinct humeral pits, consisting of partly fused small holes; the wing with an obtuse anal lobe and a short costal extension; the relatively low antennal ratio (AR 0.60 – 0.83); and the hypopygium with a triangular, stout, and horn-like superior volsella; and a double-layered inferior volsella bearing an apically narrowed dorsal lobe; without crista dorsalis.

Liu et al. (2014b: 104) recorded 5 male and 2 female adults of this species from Sichuan Province in Oriental China. We examined 3 male voucher specimens (NK 11614, 12268, and 12269) of them. As a result, we found the specimens differ from true R. (s. str.) pauciseta Saether, 1969 because of the large humeral pit consisting of two parts and the horn-like slender superior volsella as in R. (s. str.) nepalensis Lehmann, 1969 and R. (s. str.) tamahumeralis Sasa, 1981.

The female is unknown.