Description of Micropygomyia brandaoi sp. n. (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae), a fossil phlebotomine from the Dominican Republic

Abstract

The description of Micropygomyia brandaoi, a new species of fossil phlebotomine sand fly, is based on one male specimen obtained from Dominican amber of the Miocene period (20 million years). In this new species, the fifth palpal segment is long, the coxite lacks a setal tuft and the style shows four well-developed spines. This set of characters allowed us to place the new species in the genus Micropygomyia Barretto. We examined 32 amber inclusions from Dominican Republic containing 55 phlebotomine sandflies specimens; all specimens were assumed to belong to a single undescribed species. A rectangular piece of amber, measuring 1.9 cm x 1 cm was selected as holotype. We are herein describing a new species based only in the holotype. The measures are given in micrometers; measures were made using an Olympus CH2 microscope fitted with an ocular micrometer. Drawings were made using a camera lucida. The classification scheme used is that proposed by Galati (1995). Micropygomyia brandaoi sp. n. (Figs 1-3)Male holotype -Sand fly relatively small, measurement ca 1,456; its entire length could not be measured, and its general color could not be defined with precision. Paired appendages complete.Head: laid on its side, thus obstructing the width measurement. Mouthparts not distinguishable, thus palpomeres 1st and 2nd could not be clearly separated; length of both palpomeres = 135. Lengths of other palpomeres Abdomen: genital pump and genital filaments not visible. Aedeagus triangular; gonostyle 99 long, with four spines arranged as follows: one apical, one external superior, one external inferior implanted at same level as an internal spine on the middle of the gonostyle. Preapical bristle absent. Coxite 130 long, without bristles. Paramere 132 long, bearing a dorsal group of bristles. Lateral lobe 168 long and 19 wide. Lateral lobe/coxite ratio = 1.29:1; coxite/paramere ratio = 0,98:1; lateral lobe/ paramere ratio = 1.27:1.Type material -Holotype male and 54 paratypes males, Dominican Republic, North Santiago, specimen in amber from the mid-Miocene period, deposited in the Phlebotomine Sand Fly collection of the Instituto René Rachou-Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.Etymology -The name Micropygomyia brandaoi sp. n. is in honor of Sinval Pinto Brandão Filho, for his contribution to the knowledge on leishmaniasis in Brazil.

Phylogenetic relations among Mexican phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) and their divergence time estimation

“…A total evidence phylogeny and the estimation of its divergence time were calculated using MrBayes-mpi 3.2.7–8 [ 40 ] for BioArchLinux [ 41 ]. The tree was calculated using the Fossilized Birth-Death process [ 42 , 43 ], the calibration used the temporal and morphological information of the fossil species Micropygomyia brandaoi [ 39 ] and Pintomyia bolontikui [ 38 ]. The models employed for this reconstruction were obtained with Modelfinder in IQtree, limiting the search for those models exclusive to Mr. Bayes.…”

Review of American Fossil Phlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae) With a Description of Two New Species

“…Terminalia small, gonocoxite without bristles. This species has been described on the basis of 56 males and is the most abundant fossil species in the Dominican Republic (Andrade Filho et al 2008). It belongs to the cayennensis complex and can be separated from other modern species on the basis of the ␣/␤ ratio and by the lateral lobe, which is longer than the gonocoxite and paramere.…”

“…However, with the recent description of more species (Azar et al 1999;Brazil and Andrade Filho 2002;Andrade Filho et al 2004, 2006a, b, 2007, 2008Peñ alver and Grimaldi 2005), this number has increased to 15.…”

“…The other species of sand ßy found in amber belonging to extant genera are Phlebotomus pungens (Loew, 1845), a subfossil of the Holocene; Sergentomyia succini Stuckenberg, 1975 of the Eocene (Loew 1845, Stuckenberg 1975, both from the Old World; Micropygomyia paterna (Quate, 1963) from Mexican Oligocene/Miocene amber; Pintomyia falcaorum Brazil and Andrade Filho, 2002;Trichopygomyia killickorum Andrade Filho, Falcão, and Brazil, 2004;Lutzomyia Galati, and Falcão, 2006;Pintomyia paleotownsendi Andrade Filho, Falcão, Galati, and Brazil, 2006;Pintomyia paleotrichia Andrade Filho, Brazil, Falcão, and Galati, 2007;and Micropygomyia brandaoi Andrade Filho, Galati, Falcão, and Brazil, 2008, all of these species from Dominican Republic Miocene amber (Quate 1963;Brazil and Andrade Filho 2002;Andrade Filho et al 2004, 2006a, b, 2007, 2008Peñ alver and Grimaldi 2005). Besides these, Young and Lawyer (1987) recorded 14 fossil specimens from the Dominican Republic belonging to two species, and Antoine et al (2006) found one species of phlebotomine sand ßy from Miocene amber from Peru, but these species were not described by the respective authors.…”

Description of a new species, Pintomyia dissimilis nov. sp., a phlebotomine fossil from Dominican Republic amber (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae)

“…To date, in the New World, fifteen species of fossil sandflies had been formally described and most are from the Dominican Republic and only one from Mexico. All the species are within the genera Pintomyia Costa Lima, 1932; Micropygomyia Barretto, 1962; and Psathyromyia Barretto, 1962 [ 4 , 5 ].…”