Bioacoustics of Sabeurina

etymology · Plazi

Etymology. The new genus name is compounded to include the first syllable of Sabrosky in honour of Dr. Curtis W. Sabrosky, who spent a lifetime advancing our knowledge of Diptera and who died unexpectedly in 1997. Affinities. The combination of a slender hind femur, R2+3 running close to the costa throughout its length, lack of a "sensory area" on the hind tibia, frontal triangle bare, a row of setulae present only on the extreme margin, in the male, the mesolobus without setulae and the surstyli fused to the epandrium places Phyladelphus as the closest described relative of Sabeurina . The male terminalia of the two genera are very similar indeed (compare plate 7, Fig. 29 of Sabeurina occidentalis with that of Phyladelphus geminus (Deeming 1981: 825, Fig. 75)) . Certainly, the described species of Phyladelphus (inclusive of those described here) have the arista either thickened by compact short hairs or lanceolate, whereas Sabeurina does not. This difference, however, I do not consider as being diagnostic at the generic level on account of the haphazardness of such aristal modification elsewhere ( Andersson 1979 ). The head shape of the two genera differs greatly, the head of Phyladelphus being deeper than long and with the frons only slightly projecting in front of the eye, whereas in Sabeurina the head is much longer than deep and with the frons strongly projecting. Furthermore, the frontal triangle of Phyladelphus has its lateral margins sinuate in all species, convex posteriorly and concave anteriorly, so that its anterior part is drawn out into a narrow point. In Sabeurina the lateral margins are either perfectly straight ( S. minuta ) or it is anteriorly broadly rounded ( S. occidentalis ). The first instar larva of Sabeurina lacks the specialised thoracic spicules described here for Phyladelphus . Andersson (1977) , in his assessment of the “ Eurina ” species group illustrated the male terminalia of Eurina calva Egger, 1862 , for want of material of other species. However, this was not the type species of the genus and given the possibility of alternative generic combinations of some species in this group I considered it necessary to illustrate the male terminalia of Eurina lurida Meigen, 1830 (Fig. 30) for comparison with Sabeurina and closely related genera. Furthermore, in his figure he omitted the distal part of the hypandrium. Sabeurina differs from Eurina in having the abdominal sternites very narrow in both sexes and the hypandrium with the medial of the two distal processes only about 1/5 as long as the basal part of the deep U-shaped hypandrium. In Eurina the medial process is about 1½ times as long as the basal part of the much shorter U-shaped hypandrium. In Eurina the mesolobus is very short, hardly extending into the sub-epandrial space, whereas in Sabeurina this structure is well developed and extends to more than half way across the sub-epandrial space.

this account at Plazi