First record of Pipunculidae (Diptera) from Martinique, with a description of Eudorylas dumbardoni sp. nov.

ABSTRACT

The family Pipunculidae is being recorded from Martinique for the first time. During a dipterological expedition on the island in January – February 2018, mainly based on the pan-trap method, four specimens of Eudorylas dumbardoni sp. nov. were collected. This species is described, illustrated, and compared with E. cressoni Johnson, a similar species based mainly on the yellow body coloration, originally described from the Bahamas and Jamaica, and also recorded from the Dominican Republic.

KEYWORDS:

• Big-headed flies
• Caribbean pipunculids
• neotropics
• oceanic islands fauna
• taxonomy
• yellow pan traps

Acknowledgments

The specimens studied here are part of the material collected during the 2018 “Dipterological survey of Martinique”, as part of the larger “Étude de la faune entomologique et d’autres invertébrés de la RBI des Pitons du Carbet (Martinique)”, organized by the Institut Caribéen pour la Nature et la Culture (ICNC). Thanks to Patrick Maréchal (president of ICNC), Eddy Dumbardon-Martial, Chloé Pierre, and Anja De Braekeleer for their assistance and companionship during fieldwork in 2018. M. Pollet thanks Charly and Joy Vigilant and Clarisse Moscou, owners of the lodges at Fort-de-France, and Corinne Arlabosse and her husband Laurent, owners of the lodge at Petite Anse, for allowing him to employ pan traps on their properties; and Régis Delannoye for his much appreciated and enjoyable assistance during fieldwork. J.A. Rafael is grateful to the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) for the available laboratory infrastructure and financial research support; to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), for the financial support, research fellow processes 300997/2016–7 and 306661/2021–7; and to Walterley Vilhena Pereira Filho who produced the photos.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [300997/2016–7]; Institut Caribéen pour la Nature et la Culture.