Lamproscatella brunnipennis (Malloch 1923)

Lamproscatella (Lamproscatella) brunnipennis (Malloch)

Scatella brunnipennis Malloch, 1923:221.—Scheiring, 1975:297–298 [lectotype designation].

Lamproscatella brunnipennis Vibe, 1950:420.—Wirth, 1965:756 [catalog].

Lamproscatella brunneipennis [sic] norvegica Andersson, 1975:165 [new synonym].

DIAGNOSIS.—Specimens of this species are similar to those of L. occidentalis but may be distinguished from the latter and other congeners by the following combination of characters: Size of specimens averaging larger than those of L. aklavik or L. bimaculata; coloration of facial pollinosity golden brown, sometimes with some grayish or olivaceous coloration; shape of fifth tergum of male subtrapezoidal, posterior margin broadly rounded to subtruncate, orientation of fifth tergum in lateral view sometimes at ventro-oblique angle to general body plane (this could be an artifact of how the specimens were preserved); shape of surstyli digitiform, straight; epandrium narrowing gradually to merge with surstyli, in lateral view with posterior surface undulate, distinctly swelling near merger with surstyli; gonite produced ventrally, rounded, with submucronate lateral projection in anterior view.

DESCRIPTION.—Small to moderately small shore flies, length 1.58 to 2.57 mm (averaging 2.07 mm); description generally as for specimens of L. occidentalis except as follows.

Head: Head width-to-height ratio averaging 1:0.64; eye width-to-height ratio averaging 1:1.10; eye-to-cheek ratio averaging 1:0.25. Coloration of face not as variable as in specimens of L. occidentalis, see above.

Thorax: Coloration generally duller than abdomen, vestiture more pollinose, grayer. Wing length-to-width ratio averaging 1:0.45; costal vein ratio 1:0.175; M1+2 vein ratio averaging 1:0.63.

Abdomen: As described in diagnosis and in Figures 42–46.

TYPE MATERIAL.—Lectotype male (designated by Scheiring, 1975:297–298) is labeled: “St. Paul Id Bering Sea Aug. 16, 1915/G Dallas Hanna Collector/Paratype No. 26462 U.S.N.M. [red]/LECTOTYPE Scatella brunnipennis Malloch 1923 J. F. Scheiring, 1975 [red, handwritten].” Seventy paralectotypes were also designated by Scheiring. The lectotype and most of the paralectotypes are in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian institution, Washington, D. C., type number 26462. Four paralectotypes are in the California Academy of Sciences. Locality data for the type of L. brunnipennis norvegica are as follows (extracted from Andersson, 1975): “Norway, Finnmark, Lakselv, 5. VII. 1956, leg. R. Dahl. The holotype is a male and is deposited in the Zoological Museum, Lund, Sweden.”

OTHER SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—CANADA: MANITOBA: Churchill, 14 Jun–28 Aug, 1930–1952, D. G. Denning, P. R. Ehrlich, B. Hocking, L. A. Miller, W. R. Richards, G. E. Shewell (11 , 22 ; CAS, CNC, UMN, USNM). NEWFOUNDLAND: Hebron, 4–5 Aug 1954, J. F. McAlpine, E. E. Sterns (2 , 1 ; CNC). NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: Baffin Island, Head of Clyde, 7 Aug 1958, G. E. Shewell (26 , 18 ; CNC); Cambridge Bay, 30 Jun–28 Jul 1950, E.H.N. Smith, D. K. Sweetman (79 , 32 ; CNC); Cape Dorset, 26 Aug 1954, H. Huckel (2 ; CNC); Chesterfield, 28 Jun 1950, J. R. Vockeroth (1 , 4 ; CNC); Coral Harbor, Southhampton Island, 7 Jun–30 Aug, 1948–1954, P. R. Ehrlich, H. Huckel, G. E. Shewell (64 , 48 ; CNC); Eskimo Point, 28 Jun 1950 (4 . 4; CNC); Eureka, Ellesmere Island, 19 Aug 1953, P. F. Bruggemann (4 , 15 ; CNC); Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, 9 Aug 1948, G. F. Dilabio (6 ; CNC); Kidluit Bay, Richards Island, 29–30 Jul 1948, J. R. Vockeroth (1 , 2 ; CNC); Lady Melville Lake, 3 Jul 1951, J. G. Chillcott (1 ; CNC); Masik Riv Banks, 18–31 Jul 1968, W.R.M. Mason, G. E. Shewell (2 , 2 ; CNC); Padlei, 30 Jun 1950, R. A. Hennigar (1 ; CNC); Spence Bay, 10 Jun–14 Aug 1951, J. C. Chillcott (13 , 17 ; CNC). QUEBEC: Sugluk, 2–30 Aug 1954, H. Huckel (20 , 36 ; CNC). YUKON TERRITORY: 28 Jun–20 Jul, 1930–1971, C. D. Bird, O. Bryant, J. S. Waterhouse, D. M. Wood (14 , 26 ; CAS, CNC, USNM); Shingle Point, Mackenzie River, 29 Aug 1929, O. Bryant (5 , 9 ; CAS, USNM). UNITED STATES: ALASKA: St. George Island, Bering Sea, 4 Jun 1914, G. D. Hanna (1 , 5 ; USNM); St. Paul Island, Bering Sea, 20 Jun–19 Aug, 1897–1921, Kincaid, E. A. Preble, G. D. Hanna, A. Christofson (35 , 24 ; ANSP, CAS, USNM).

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION (Figure 38).—This species has a Holarctic, transarctic distribution. In North America, it occurs along the northern coasts of Canada between 58° and 80° (the most northern locality of any known shore fly) north latitude from Labrador to the Yukon Territory. The type-locality is in the Bering Sea, southwest of the Alaska mainland.