Dasiops stuckenbergi
Description: Rather small; length 3.25 mm. Color black, with some dark blue
reflections; fairly uniformly dull brownish pollinose; not strongly shining. ostensibly bare; oalyptrae light brownish, with brown margins and fringes; legs and
tarsi brownish-black; metatarsi paler brown, particularly at base.
Male.—Head about four-fifths as high as wide. Compound eye ostensibly bare.
Frons bronzy-blue; distinctly and somewhat suddenly na-rrowed below orbital
bristle; about three-fourths as wide at lunule as at anterior ocellus; frontal hairs
rather long but sparse, none arising dorsad of orbital bristle. Lunule high; acutely
arched above; subshining blackish pollinose; with a pock-like depression immedi¬
ately above base of each antenna. Pace thinly greyish pollinose; antennal fova
shallow, attaining oral margin; facial carina very low and evenly rounded except
between bases of antennae where it is distinctly grooved. Parafacial sublinear.
Cheek linear in lateral view; one strong vibrissa-like bristle present, with a row of
much weaker bristles below it. Postocular setulae short; upper two or three visible
above margin of compound eye. Antenna black; third segment but little longer than
wide (3.1:2.25). Arista with very short pubescence; swollen basal portion pale brownish.
Thorax brownish-black, with weak, dark blue reflections in some lights. Mesonotum
with a uniform covering of dull brown pollen; moderately shortly and sparsely haired;
all bristles easily distinguished. Scutellum with usual four bristles; without other
hairs; posterior lateral bristles as close together as anterior lateral bristle is to base
of scutellum. Mesopleuron with two strong (upper), one weak (lower) posterior
bristles and with three relatively weak anterodorsal bristles. Poststigmatal and
stigmatal setulae single. Sternopleuron with one bristle preceded by a few progres¬
sively weaker hairs. Prostemum bare.
Wing pale brownish hyaline; veins yellowish-brown. Calyptrae dusky-brown,
with dark brown margins and fringes. Legs and tarsi dark brown; metatarsi some¬
what paler brown ventrally at bases.
Abdomen cordate; approximately as wide as long; rather heavily brownish polli¬
nose above; in some lights appearing dull, in others greasy-shiny.
Genitalia (Figs. 23, 26) very small. Epandrium rather pyriform in lateral aspect;
broadest on ventral one-third. Surstylus with two teeth; tongue-shaped in lateral
aspect. Aedeagus similar to that in preceding species. Bjpandrial apodeme rela¬
tively very large; almost as long and broad as epandrium.
Female.—-As described for the male except as follows: More shining throughout.
Frons broader, with sides almost parallel; often, at least in dry specimens, with a pair
of lateral grooves which converge toward lunule. Calyptrae, except margins and
fringes, and whig paler. Pollen of abdominal terga ceasing abruptly on the fourth
tergum; remaining terga polished black.
Ovipositor (Figs. 28, 29, 34) with apical portion gradually attenuated to a fine
rounded apex; apex curving rather sharply ventrad in dead specimens; hairs fine
and short, barely visible under ordinary stereoscopic microscope; narrow apical
portion of penultimate section with a strong mesal groove dorsally. Posterior margin
of seventh tergum (Fig. 28) with a fascicle of stiff, caudally directed setulae at pos¬
terior margin. Sterna 4, 5 and 6 (Fig. 33) each with a long median apodeme; sternum
3 with a pair of short apodemes near middle of anterior margin.