Syritta hirta, new species
Antennae reddish yellow, the third segment broadly darkened above; hind femora with long, fine hairs below. Length, 8 to 8.5 mm.
Male
.Face, frontal triangle and oral margin reddish yellow in ground color, thickly pale yellow pollinose, the sides of the face with pale yellow pile. Vertical triangle shining black, einereous pollinose on the anterior two-fifths, black pilose. Occiput and cheeks cinereous pollinose, the occiput bare above except for a spot on each side of the vertex, the pile whitish.
Antennae reddish yellow, the third segment brownish on upper half or less.
Mesonotum shining black, the humeri and the broad sides in front of the suture reddish in ground color and densely yellow pollinose; pile closely appressed, in one specimen mostly yellow, with a broad, postsutural black band, in the other mostly black, the yellow predominating in front of the suture and immediately in front of the scutellum; scutellum mostly black haired but with pale pile on the margin. Pleura cinereous pollinose, the mesopleura partly or mostly reddish in ground color, the pile yellow, becoming white below.
Coxae brownish, pale pollinose and white pilose.
Anterior four legs reddish, the tips of the femora and broad bases of the tibiae yellow. Posterior femora and tibiae brown or castaneous, the femora with broad, complete, median reddish band that extends very broadly to the base on the under side and expands toward the apex dorsally; tibiae with broad, median reddish band that may expand to cover the posterior surface from the middle to the apex; posterior tarsi reddish basally, becoming brown apically. Pile whitish and yellow, long and white on the under surface of the posterior femora, which bear only a half dozen, short, weak bristles on the basal half of the ventral surface; front tarsi not at all widened.
Wings hyaline, the veins brown; stigma luteous. Squamae white, with yellow fringe. Halteres reddish yellow.
First abdominal segment dull blackish, the sides more or less reddish. Second segment reddish yellow, with a broad median vitta that expands basally, but does not reach the side margins, and expands posteriorly to form a broad apical fascia, opaque black; third segment with a very broad median black vitta which expands to cover the posterior fourth of the segment, shining on the anterior third and on the apex, opaque on the disc; fourth segment shining black, the apex more or less reddish, the basal corners with a rather small whitish pollinose triangle on reddish ground. Pile black on the black areas beyond the middle of the second segment, yellow on the yellowish spots and on the lateral margins, or whitish on the sides of the fourth segment. Genitalia shining black, yellowish haired, somewhat pale pollinose below. First and fourth sternites blackish, the median ones reddish yellow; fourth rather strongly longitudinally carinate and with a cluster of long, yellow pile apically in the middle.
Types
Holotype, male, Monrovia, Liberia (J. Bequaert). Paratype, male, Ibadan, Nigeria.
unless otherwise stated