Sphegina (Asiosphegina) tenuis Brunetti, 1915

Sphegina tenuis Brunetti, 1915: 224. Type locality: India, Darjiling (holotype, ♂, NZSI).

Type material

The holotype from India was not examined by us, but is redescribed based on data in the literature.

Differential diagnosis

See under the Remarks below.

Description

Male

See also Brunetti (1915, 1923).

LENGTH. Body 4.5 mm.

HEAD. Face in lateral view clearly concave. Face black, light grey pollinose. Hypostomal bridge black. Gena black, mouth edge red-brown. Frons dull black, grey pollinose. Occiput grey. Antenna black, arista long.

THORAX. Colour black, weakly greyish pollinose, with denser grey pollinose vitta submedially; pleuron with greyish pollinosity and grey-yellowish pile.

WING. Entirely hyaline, stigma yellowish.

LEGS. Pro- and mesoleg yellow, tarsi with tarsomeres 4 and 5 black. Metaleg with coxae black; femur basal half yellow, apical half black, incrassate; metatibia black and yellow biannulate; metatarsus entirely black, basitarsomere rather thick.

ABDOMEN. Terga black; tergum II slightly constricted anteriorly and very long; tergum III with sub-basal yellow fascia. Genitalia large, apparently globular.

Female

Unknown.

Remarks

Only the holotype male of Sphegina (Asiosphegina) tenuis from Darjeeling, India, is known. By the hyaline wing, yellow pro- and mesolegs with two black apical tarsomeres and sub-anterior yellow fascia on tergum III it recalls other small species like Sphegina (Asiosphegina) minuta, S. (A.) pusilla and S. (A.) philippina but differs by the mesonotum sub-shiny with three grey-pollinose vittae and the metafemur yellow basally and black apically.

The synonymy with Sphegina (Asiosphegina) javana (Pape & Evenhuis 2018) is rejected based on the bicoloured metafemur (biannulate in S. (A.) javana); the black face (yellow S. (A.) javana) and the yellow sub-anterior fascia on tergum III (anterior in S. (A.) javana).