A NEW SPECIES OF TEUCHOPHORUS (DOLICHOPODIDAE, DIPTERA) FROM MOROCCO

Teuchophorus rifensis sp.n,. is a newly described species, collected at the border of the Talassemtane National Park in northern Morocco. This species can be distinguished from T. bipilosus and T. samraouii by the hind tibia with a slightly thickened apical half; hind tibia with a single fine bristle at 2/3, 3–3.5 times as long as diameter of tibia, and a row of 6–7 bristly hairs; hind tibia with a strong subapical ventral bristle and without ventral bristles in basal half. A key to determining the 14 Mediterranean species of Teuchophorus (males) is compiled.


Introduction
The Talassemtane  The twenty Palaearctic species of Teuchophorus Loew, 1857 (Sympycninae) have been recently reviewed, illustrated and keyed by Pollet & Kechev (2007) and Grichanov et al. (2012). Later a new species has been described from Bulgaria (Kechev et al., 2014). Here we describe a new species from Morocco and provide an identification key to the Mediterranean species.

Material and Methods
Material cited in this work is stored at the Zoological Institute of RAS, St. Petersburg (ZIN). The holotype has been studied and photographed with a ZEISS Discovery V-12 stereo microscope and an AxioCam MRc5 camera in St. Petersburg. Male genitalia have not been dissected and figured as they have low taxonomic value in the genus Teuchophorus (Grichanov et al., 2012). Morphological terminology and abbreviations follow Cumming & Wood (2017) and Grichanov & Brooks (2017). The relative length of the podomeres are given in millimeters. The body length is measured from the base of the antenna to the tip of the 6 th abdominal segment. The wing length is measured from the base of the wing to the wing apex.
The holotype has been collected by a sweep net at Souk Lhad, a small village in the rural district of Bni Darkoul in the Province of Chefchaouen in the north of Morocco. The village is located at the south-east of Chefchaouen. It is characterised by cold weather in winter and hot weather in summer. The habitat represents a scrubland with rocky soil of a calcareous nature with a small river running through it ( Fig. 1) and bordered by vegetation composed of Nerium oleander L. and Rubus ulmifolius Schott (Fig. 2). Further afield, fruit trees grow, Olea europea L. and Ficus carica L. mainly. The single specimen collected in this location was the result of a very brief sweeping action that was not focused on dolichopodids.   Head. Face with shining bluish green ground colour, distinctly narrowing towards clypeus, not reaching lower eye margin; frons shining dark blue. Occiput convex, with metallic green colour. Two pairs of postvertical bristles (lost). Vertical bristles (lost). Antenna with black scape and pedicel, postpedicel lost. Scape bare, pedicel with distal ring of setae. Palpus small, dark, with dark pubescence, with one strong bristle. Proboscis small, brown.
Thorax. The thoracic chaetotaxy same as in other Mediterranean species of the genus. Mesonotum and scutellum dorsally shining dark green. Six pairs of dorsocentrals (lost). Acrostichals uniserial. Pleura black. No propleural bristles. Scutellum with only medial pair of strong bristles present (lost), without fine hairs.
Wings transparent, with brown veins and distinct long costal stigma behind R 1 . Halters yellow.
Legs. All legs mainly yellow, mid and hind coxae and apical tarsomeres brownish. Fore and mid coxae pubescent. Fore femur and tibia simple, without strong bristles. Fore basitarsus with a row of small ventral setae in basal half, not longer than tarsomere width. Length ratio of fore leg� 0.62/0.4 7/0.33/0.13/0.09/0.08/0.09. Mid femur with three basoventral bristles at basal 1/4, about as long as femur width; with one anterior preapical bristle, with sparse antero-and posteroventral hairs. Mid tibia with one anterodorsal and one posterodorsal bristle at basal 1/3, one anterodorsal bristle at apical third, with 2 strong and long ventral bristles at middle; with one pair of preapical bristles. Length ratio of mid femur to tibia (tarsi lost)� 0.76/0.63. Hind coxa with dark brown bristle. Hind femur dorsally with a row of fine bristles, ventrally with short setae. Hind tibia gradually but slightly dilated towards apex, with one fine and long ventral bristle at 2/3, 3-3.5 times longer than tibia width, one row of 6-7 bristly hairs below, not longer than tibia width, one strong ventral subapical bristle, 2 dorsal bristles. Length ratio of hind leg� 0.87/0.81/0.28/0.28/-/-/-.
Abdomen with tergites metallic dark green, sternites black; 6 cylindrical segments with small black pubescence. Hypopygium small, black, cerci small, brown, with short pale hairs. Hypopygium morphology has no differential significance for the West Palaearctic species.
Etymology. The new species is named after the Rif Mountains, where the type material was collected.

Differential diagnosis
Teuchophorus rifensis sp.n. is morphologically close to T. bipilosus Becker, 1908 andT. samraouii Grootaert, Stark et Meuffels, 1995. The latter dif-. The latter differs from the new species by the less setose mid leg and the following features of the hind tibia: one blunt ventral bristle at 1/4, slightly longer than tibia width; one long ventral bristle at about 2/3, 4 times as long as tibia width; 4-5 shorter ventral bristles basally, half as long as longish bristles, and followed by preapical setal ventral serration. Teuchophorus bipilosus, on the other hand, differs by the following characters of the hind tibia: devoid of ventral bristles in basal half; with 2 very long anteroventral bristles right beyond middle, 4-5 times as long as tibia width, followed by a tuft of about 7 bristly hairs. The new species can further be distinguished from the two above mentioned species by the hind tibia that is slightly thickened on apical half; by the single fine, but long bristle at 2/3, 3-3.5 times as long as tibia width, and the adjacent row of 6-7 bristly hairs; and the strong subapical ventral bristle and an entirely bare basal half.  (Zetterstedt, 1843) 12. Hind tibia with one blunt ventral bristle at 1/4, slightly longer than diameter of tibia; with one long ventral bristle at about 2/3, 4 times as long as diameter of tibia, with 4-5 half shorter bristles at its basis and followed by setal serration; body 1.28-1.44 mm (Grichanov et al., 2012� Fig. 23

Discussion
Now the Teuchophorus fauna of the Mediterranean Sea basin totals 14 species (including a new one), but more new species from some under collected countries of the Region (e.g. Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Syria) are anticipated. The Mediterranean Sea Region is inhabited by mostly endemic Teuchophorus species, being obviously a centre of diversity in the West Palaearctic (Grichanov et al., 2012;Kechev et al., 2014). Two species of the genus, i.e. T. cristulatus Mueffels et Grootaert, 1992, andT. spinigerellus (Zetterstedt, 1843), are known from Morocco (Pârvu et al., 2006;Ebejer et al., 2019), and two more species, T. bipilosus Becker, 1908 andT. samraouii Grootaert, Stark et Meuffels, 1995, have been reported from neighbouring Alge-have been reported from neighbouring Alge-have been reported from neighbouring Algeria and the Canary Islands (Grichanov et al., 2012).
The Palaearctic Teuchophorus species are usually collected in humid habitats with slowly running or stagnant water, canopied by tall grasses or deciduous trees (Kechev et al., 2014). Three species of the genus recorded in Portugal (T. bipilosus, T. monacanthus and T. spinigerellus) inhabit salt and brackish marshes, marshlands and parks, being found near open water, on river banks (Pollet et al., 2019, and references herein). When such species are only known from small blocks of remnant or disturbed vegetation, their long-term survival is problematical, especially in highly altered agricultural and urban districts. They may be threatened, if their remnant habitats are degraded by burning, grazing, clearing or invasion by exotic weeds, replaced by settlements, roads and other anthropogenic landscapes. Active application of chemical plant protection means, land reclamation, changes in land use technologies towards more rationalised approaches can have adverse effects on the biodiversity of natural ecosystems (Grichanov, 2007).