Docosia tazekkae Chandler, El Mouden & Belqat, 2025

Docosia tazekkae Chandler, El Mouden & Belqat sp. nov.

Type material.

Holotype. Morocco – Middle Atlas Region • ♂ (mounted in DMHF, terminalia on a slide); Forêt Bab Boudir ; 20/V/2022; K. Aattouch, M. El Ouahabi and M. A. El Mouden leg; collected using sweep net; NHMUK . Paratypes. Morocco – Middle Atlas Region • 1 ♂; Forêt Bab Lkhayl ; 2/V/2023; M. Beni-Eich, K. Aattouch and M. A. El Mouden leg; collected using sweep net; UAE-FST MA 23/2401 . – Rif Region • 1 ♂; Forêt après Amsemlil ; 10/II/2020; Group Belqat leg; collected using sweep net; UAE-FST R 22/2450 • 1 ♂; Forêt Malâab Tizimezzan ; 12/V/2022; M. Beni-Eich, K. Aattouch, M. El Ouahabi and M. A. El Mouden leg; collected using sweep net; UAE-FST R 22/2451 • 2 ♂♂ (mounted in DMHF, terminalia of one Oued Bni Mhamed specimen on a slide); Oued Bni Mhamed ; 11/V/2022; M. Beni-Eich, K. Aattouch, M. El Ouahabi and M. A. El Mouden leg; collected using sweep net; UAE-FST R 22/2449 • 1 ♂; Oued Farda ; 11/III/2023; I. Saidoun leg; collected using sweep net; UAE-FST R 22/2452 .

Diagnosis.

This species resembles several other Mediterranean species of this genus, including D. melita Chandler & Gatt, 2000 previously recorded from Morocco ( El Mouden et al. 2024) in its dark body colouration, mainly yellow legs and bare laterotergites. It belongs to a group of species with a simple gonostylus bearing a row of spines on its inner margin. Within this group it is most similar to D. kerkini Kurina & Ševčík, 2011 , described from Greece ( Kurina and Ševčík 2011) which also has a medioventral humped process of the apical margin of the gonocoxites bearing a cluster of short spinose setae on each side preapically. In D. kerkini the row of the spines on the gonostylus is longer (12 spines compared to 8), and the medioventral process of the gonocoxites is shorter and narrower with a deeper medial excavation and more tight patches of stout setae; tergite 9 is also differently shaped, broadened apically with a concave apical margin.

Description.

Male. Wing length 3.0– 3.2 mm. Colouration. Head including antennae and body including terminalia all black. Legs mostly yellow. Coxae dark on basal part (extreme base of fore and mid coxa, ~ 1 / 3–1 / 2 of hind coxa); trochanters dark, hind femur narrowly dark at base and tip. Wing clear, with costa and radial veins dark, other veins pale. Haltere yellow. Head. Antenna longer than head and thorax together, with slender flagellomeres> 2 × as long as broad. Ocelli situated close to eye margin. Thorax. Laterotergite bare. Legs. Mid tibia with four short anterior and three or four longer dorsal setae, almost as long as tibial width. Hind tibia with 10–12 short anterior and six longer dorsal setae, about as long as tibial width, with a few short setae in line beyond them. Wing. Sc ends in R ~ 1 / 2 or a little more to base of Rs. R 1 2–2.5 × length of r-m. Terminalia (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). Tergite 9 short and broad, rounded apically with long setae on apical margin. Cercus with tiers of close-set combs of retinacula (12 combs in holotype, 13 in paratype figured). Gonostylus simple, narrowed apically, with long fine scattered setae on outer surface and a row of eight strong spinose setae on inner margin, the most distal longest, the proximal two or three shorter than the rest. Gonocoxites with a medioventral humped process of the apical margin, bearing an irregular cluster of short spinose setae on each side preapically, the bare part beyond these spines with a shallow apical emargination; the apical margin on each side bearing a row of short strong setae and a narrow internal flange bearing long fine setae.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology.

After the name of the Tazekka National Park, which shelters the new species in the Bab Boudir Forest locality (Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ).

Habitat.

The holotype of this species was collected in the remains of a forest that neighbours the holiday centre of Bab Boudir, in the heart of the Tazekka National Park (Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ). The sampling took place at ca 0800 hrs on a sunny morning (25 ° C), with low humidity (17 %) and moderate wind speed (14 Km / h) in a dense part of the forest where the tree branches seem to meet as they are very close to each other, over a very small river (Bab Boudir rivulet), with calming low speed waters. The dense vegetative cover creates a shadowy, sheltered and fairly cold spot where sun rays can barely penetrate.