Rachicerus rafaeli Pujol-Luz & Godoi, 2025

Rachicerus rafaeli Pujol-Luz & Godoi , new species

( Figs 6–15 View FIGURES 6–8 View FIGURES 9–15 )

Diagnosis. Body blackish; femora, tibiae and first tarsomeres striped in black and white; antenna with flagellomeres pectinate slims and lanceolate.

Measurements: body length: 6.8–8.8 mm; antenna: 1.8–2.3 mm; number of antennal flagellomeres: 20; wings: 5.6–6.6 mm. Head: hemispherical, wider than thorax; front flat, shining black, with two longitudinal ridges running from ocellar plate and converging on suture that divides antennal plate in half; frontal plate large with small whitish setae (pruinosity like) around the antennae in inferior margin; fronto-orbital plate depressed and bare. Compound eyes dichoptic and bare; vertex with ocellar triangle developed, black; ocellus brownish yellow. Occiput shinning black well developed and very pilose ( Figs. 6 – 7 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Palps brownish, club-like and 2-segmented. Labellum brownish, membranous with elongate setae. Antennae elongate more than two times as long as width of head, with 20 spatulate flagellomeres, last flagellomeres truncate ( Figs. 6, 8 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Thorax: predominantly black and bare; postpronotal lobe blackish; scutum with small and sparse pilosity; anepimeron whitish; laterotergites shinning black and entirely bare; scutellum blackish, with dense pilosity ( Fig. 6 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Wings: hyaline, inconspicuous pterostigma between veins Sc and R 1; R S stem curved upwards before bifurcation of radial sectors; halters whitish ( Fig. 6 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Legs: coxae and trochanters black; fore leg with femora black, tibia and first tarsomeres white; mid and hind legs with femur and tibia with proximal half whitish and distal half black; first tarsomere of both legs whitish; empodia pulvilliform ( Fig. 6 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Abdomen: entirely shinning dark black, with dense small pilosity; intersegmental membranes whitish, giving black and white striped appearance to abdomen; terminalia conical with dense pilosity ( Fig. 6 View FIGURES 6–8 ). Genital capsule (epandrium and hypandrium) elliptical in general form; gonocoxal apodemes conspicuously long, flat and curved inwards, arising near base of gonostylus ( Figs. 9 – 11 View FIGURES 9–15 ); phallus tubular, long and curved, moderately depressed from median surface to glans pore ( Figs. 14 – 15 View FIGURES 9–15 ); gonostylus long and curved, with upper tip slightly larger than basal tip; interior margin deeply concave, covered by small and sparse pilosity ( Figs. 12 – 13 View FIGURES 9–15 ). Cercus long, spoon-shaped with small, sparse pilosity.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology: This name is given to honor Professor José Albertino Rafael, our friend and illustrious Brazilian dipterist.

Geographical distribution. BRAZIL, states of Amazonas and Maranhão.

Type material. The male HOLOTYPE is housed in the Coleção Zoológica do Maranhão ( CZMA), Caxias , Maranhão, Brazil. Labeled : Brasil (MA), C[ândido] Mendes , Fazenda 7 Irmãos , 01 o 52’06”S, 45 o 45’59.7”W [White label]/ Arm [adilha] Malaise , 15-31.xii.2018, F. Limeira-de-Oliveira, D. Limeira & J.S. Brito, cols. [White label]/ Holótipo [Red label]/ CZMA600 [White label]. The holotype is in good condition, only missing the lack of the right fore leg, the mid legs and the tips of the antennae. GoogleMaps PARATYPE male housed in the Coleção de Invertebrados do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia ( INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The specimen is fixed in glycerol in a microvial, labeled: Brasil, Amazonas, 26 Km NE Manaus, Reserva Ducke, 23.VIII.1988 [white label]/ J.A. Rafael & Socorro Rosa col. [white label]/ Parátipo [Green label] GoogleMaps .