Neria caucasica
Added by Ozerov in 1990 from material collected in the Caucasus (North Ossetia, Alania) in the area surrounding the village of Buron in the Tsey Gorge (42°47'18.30"N 44° 0'17.81"E) on 26th July 1988
Rough translation (original kindly sent to me by Libor Dvorak & my attempt at translation from the Russian)
Differential diagnosis. The combination of two features - the presence of only l notopleural seta and a number of hairs on the meron (=hypopleuron) - serve to distinguish C.caucasica sp.n. from all other species of the genus Compsobata
[Note that the paper uses "Compsobata" but Ozerov changed all members of this Genus into "Neria" soon afterwards]
Description. The length of the head in profile is greater than the height (6: 5). Upper half of the forehead (in some instances, only a third), the ocellar triangle and almost the entire occiput are black. The lower part of the forehead and antennae are yellow. In females, the third segment of the antennae is darkened. Bottom of the neck, cheeks, face and palps white. Arista is dark brown, slightly widened at the base, in very short thin hairs. The base of the forehead, the occiput, and the chest are covered with stiff, short, light hairs, close together. The same hairs completely cover the mesonotum and scutellum in females, while in males, only the edges of the mesonotum and scutellum, the rest of the other surface in gray plaque. Shoulder tubercles (humeri), pro-episteres, pro-epimers, midline of spiracle, anterior edge of anepisternes and most of the surface of anepimerones are yellow. Amatergite black, under the glitter. Proepisternite with long thin hairs. The posterior margin of the merons with a series of light long protruding hairs.
Chaetotaxy of mesonotum: 1 npl, 1 spal , 1 pal, 1 dc. (npl = notopleural, spal = supra-alar, pal = postalar, dc = dorsocentral)
The legs are yellow. Middle tibia with two dark spots: the greater is located near the middle on the dorsal surface, the smaller is on the ventral, at the very top of the lower leg. The apex is obtuse in some individuals, which enters the dorsal side, forming a ring. Rear tibia with a black ring at the apex and a large spot in the apex at the dorsal side.
Transparent wings with yellow-brown veins.
The abdomen is black. The abdomen of the male abdomen is completely gray, sometimes a narrow strip of the back edge of the tergite remains unpolluted (?unpollinated). The lateral outgrowths of the V aberrant male abdomen of the ticks are curved in relation to each other,, narrow, thickened at the top (figure, a, b). I + II Syntergites of the female abdomen completely in the gray pat. Subsequent tergites are pollinated only along the leading edge , the olylenyl region covers no more than half of the surface of the tergites. Vlll abdominal segment of female elongated, tapering to apex; the width of the tergite and sternite are approximately the same.
Body length 5.2-6.3 mm. Wing length 5.4-6.6 mm.
Temperate Humid or Semi-Humid Mountain
S2 North Caucasian middle-mountain landscapes with beech, partly beech-hornbeam and
hornbeam-oak forests
sensu An Ecoregional Conservation Plan for the Caucasus ISBN: 99940-58-55-X