Palaearctic species of the genus Gymnophora are reviewed. Four new species, G. amurensis sp. n., G. gornostaevi sp. n., G. perpropinqua sp. n., and G. victoria sp. n., are described from the European Russia, Middle Asia, and Russian Far East. Females of two other species from the Far East are described under code letters. G. laciniata Michailovskaya, 1997 is synonymised under G. prescherweberae Disney, 1997. Lectotypes of G. arcuata (Meigen, 1839) and G. verrucata (Schmitz, 1929) are designated. The latter species is redescribed. Palaearctic females of G. nigripennis demonstrate wide variation of taxonomically important features and may, in fact, represent a group of closely related species. One female of G. nigripennis, which has been caught alive, is recorded to be infected with fungi.
The species of the genus Microtrichalus Pic, 1921 represented in the Philippines are revised. Six species are placed in the genus; in addition to M. basipennis (Pic, 1926), two species are described as new (M. retractus sp. n. and M. salvani sp. n., both from Mindanao), and three species are transferred from the genus Trichalus Waterhouse, 1877: M. bakeri (Kleine, 1929) comb. n., M. costilis (Kleine, 1926) comb. n. and M. communis (Waterhouse, 1879) comb. n. A key to the six Philippine Microtrichalus species and illustrations of their important diagnostic characters are provided. Trichalus nigricauda Bourgeois, 1886 and T. longicollis Bourgeois, 1883 are transferred to the genus Leptotrichalus Kleine, 1925. Leptotrichalus mindorosus Pic, 1925 is proposed to be a junior subjective synonym of Leptotrichalus longicollis (Bourgeois, 1883).
Genus-group taxa of Platerodinae are revised and valid taxa are redescribed. The validity of Plateros Bourgeois, 1879 is reinstated. Libnetomimus Kleine, 1927 is made a junior synonym of Libnetis Waterhouse, 1878. Calleros Gorham, 1881, Calloplateros Pic, 1923, Costatoplateros Pic, 1949, Ditoneces Waterhouse, 1879, Libnetomorphus Pic, 1921, Microplateros Pic, 1921, Planeteros Gorham, 1883, Tolianus Pic, 1921, Melampyrus Waterhouse, 1879, and the subgenus Cautirodes Pic, 1921 are considered to be junior synonyms of Plateros Bourgeois, 1879. The subgenus Pseudeuplectus Pic, 1922 is synonymized to Cavoplateros Pic, 1913, and Pseudoplateros Green, 1951 is made a junior synonym of Falsocalleros Pic, 1933. Macrolibnetis Pic, 1938 formerly classified with Platerodini is synonymized to Platerodrilus Pic, 1921. Samoaneros Blair, 1928 is considered to be a junior objective synonym of Melaneros Fairmaire, 1877, which is excluded from Platerodinae and is kept incertae sedis in Lycidae. Fernandum Pic, 1924 and Subdihammatus Kleine, 1926 are transferred to the subfamily Leptolycinae. Teroplas oculatus sp. n. and Microlycus mexicanus sp. n. are described. Neotype of Plateros brasiliensis (Lucas, 1857) and lectotype of Microlycus minutus Pic, 1922 are designated. In order to understand relationships within the subfamily, included genus-group taxa were cladistically analysed.
This study is a revision of the Iberian Merodon Meigen, 1803 species, including an illustrated key, a discussion of taxonomic characters and a morphological diagnosis for all included species. Descriptions are provided for nine new species: M. antonioi sp. n., M. arundanus sp. n., M. cabanerensis sp. n., M. crypticus sp. n., M. hurkmansi sp. n., M. legionensis sp. n., M. longispinus sp. n., M. luteihumerus sp. n. and M. quercetorum sp. n. The taxon M. escorialensis Strobl, 1909 is redescribed and lectotype is designated. Lectotypes are designated for four taxa: M. albifrons Meigen, 1822; M. spinipes obscuritarsis Strobl in Czerny & Strobl, 1909; M. spicatus Becker, 1907; and M. spinipes grossus Gil Collado, 1930. Three varieties are redefined and considered as valid species: M. obscuritarsis Strobl in Czerny & Strobl, 1909 (as var. of spinipes); M. grossus Gil Collado, 1930 (as var. of spinipes); M. unicolor Strobl in Czerny & Strobl, 1909 (as var. of aeneus). The following new synonymies are proposed: M. affinis Gil Collado, 1930 syn.n. (= junior synonym of M. longicornis Sack, 1913); M. lusitanicus Hurkmans, 1993 syn.n. (= junior synonym of M. serrulatus Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822); M. andalusiacus Paramonov, 1929 syn.n., M. bolivari Gil Collado, 1930 syn.n., M. hispanicus Sack, 1931 syn.n. (= all three are junior synonyms of M. unguicornis Strobl in Czerny & Strobl, 1909); M. spicatus Becker, 1907 syn.n. (= junior synonym of M. chalybeus Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822); M. fuerteventurensis Barkemeyer, 2002 syn. n. (= junior synonym of M. obscuritarsis Strobl, 1909); and M. spinipes grossus (Gil Collado, 1930) syn.n. (= junior synonym of M. albifrons Meigen, 1822). Status of M. serrulatus Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822 is revised. Four species: M. longicornis Sack, 1913, M. pumilus Macquart, 1849, M. ottomanus Hurkmans, 1993 and M. segetum (Fabricius, 1794) are new for the Iberian Peninsula. Male genitalia are illustrated for all the species and a key of the 34 Iberian species (+ M. hurkmansi sp. n.) for males and females (except for the unknown female of M. longispinus sp. n.) is appended. Distribution and biological data for the Iberian species are also included. A brief zoogeographic discussion is also presented. The level of endemism of genus Merodon on the Iberian Peninsula is extremely high (almost 50%).
The New World species of Loxocera Meigen are revised including two new species, L. (Imantimyia) ignyodactyla Buck sp. n. from Costa Rica (first record of the genus from the Neotropical region) and L. (Imantimyia) ojibwayensis Buck sp. n. from Ontario, Canada. Loxocera californica Capelle is synonymized with L. collaris Loew and lectotypes are designated for L. pleuritica Loew and L. cylindrica var. obsoleta Johnson (both synonyms of L. cylindrica Say). The New World species are diagnosed and a key to species is provided. The male and female terminalia of Loxocera are described in detail for the first time, and their functional morphology is discussed. Eggs of most species are described and a key to the known eggs of Loxocera is provided. A phylogenetic framework for the Holarctic subgenera and species groups of Loxocera is developed based on morphological characters of the adult flies. The Old World subgenus Platystyla Macquart is synonymized with Loxocera s. str., and Imantimyia Frey is reinstated as a valid subgenus including all Holarctic species previously placed in Loxocera s. str. except the L. aristata species group. This leads to the following new subgeneric combinations: L. (L.) malaisei Frey comb. n., L. (L.) matsumurai Iwasa comb. n., L. (L.) monstrata Iwasa, comb. n., and L. (L.) omei Shatalkin comb. n. The species groups of Imantimyia are redefined, i.e. the L. achaeta-group (7 spp.), the L. fulviventris-group (4 spp.), and the L. albiseta-group (1 sp.). The Oriental subgenus Asiopsila Shatalkin is referred to Psila Meigen s. l. as a subgenus based on characters of the egg, resulting in fourteen new generic combinations: Psila (Asiopsila) brevibuccata (Shatalkin) comb. n., P. (A.) burmanica (Frey) comb. n., P. (A.) decorata (de Meijere) comb. n., P. (A.) derivata (Shatalkin) comb. n., P. (A.) formosana (Hennig) comb. n., P. (A.) freidbergi (Shatalkin) comb. n., P. (A.) humeralis (de Meijere) comb. n., P. (A.) kambaitensis (Frey) comb. n., P. (A.) limpida (Shatalkin) comb. n., P. (A.) maculipennis (Hendel) comb. n., P. (A.) michelseni (Shatalkin) comb. n., P. (A.) pleuralis (Frey) comb. n., P. (A.) primigena (Shatalkin) comb. n., and P. (A.) vittipleura (Shatalkin) comb. n.
The species of Lampetis (Spinthoptera) Casey, 1909 of Central America, North America and the West Indies are revised and 31 species are recognized. Six species from the West Indies [L. aurata (Saunders, 1871), L. aurifera (Olivier, 1790), L. bahamica (Fisher, 1925), L. guildini (Laporte & Gory, 1836), L. straba (Chevrolat, 1867), and L. torquata (Dalman, 1823)], eight species from Mexico [L. auropunctata (Kerremans, 1893) (new record for the USA), L. chalconota (Waterhouse, 1882), L. christophi Théry, 1923, L. dilaticollis (Waterhouse, 1882), L. geniculata (Waterhouse, 1889), L. granulifera (Laporte & Gory, 1837), L. mexicana Théry, 1923, and L. obscura Thomson, 1879], three species from Mexico and Central America [L. cortesi (Laporte & Gory, 1837), L. monilis (Chevrolat, 1834), L. simplex (Waterhouse, 1882)], and three from Central America [L. hirtomaculata (Herbst, 1801) = L. insularis (Casey, 1909) syn. n.; L. lesnei (Kerremans, 1910); and L. srdinkoana (Obenberger, 1924)] are redescribed. Seven new species (L. chamela sp. n., L. colima sp. n., L. cyanitarsis sp. n., L. hondurensis sp. n., L. tigrina sp. n., L. viridicolor sp. n., and L. viridimarginalis sp. n.) are described. Three species from Mexico and the United States [L. cupreopunctata (Schaeffer, 1905), L. drummondi (Laporte & Gory, 1836), and L. webbii (LeConte, 1858)], and one species from Mexico (L. chiapaneca Corona, 2004) are not described here, because they were (re)described recently. The diagnosis, distribution, host plants and phenology data of L. chiapaneca, L. cupreopunctata, L. drummondi, and L. webbii are given. Lampetis famula Chevrolat, 1838 and L. variolosa (Fabricius, 1801) are not recognized herein as Mexican species, because they are from South America according to the literature and specimens studied. Information on variation, distribution, and host plants are given for each species. Photographs of dorsal habitus and male genitalia are included.
Megaselia metropolitanoensis Disney, sp. n., M. sakaiae Disney, sp. n. and Puliciphora pygmaea (Borgmeier, 1960) comb. n. are reported developing in the flowers of Aristolochia inflata H. B. K. and A. maxima Jacq. in Panama. The new species are described, as is the hitherto unknown male of Puliciphora pygmaea. The latter is transferred to the the genus Puliciphora Dahl, 1897 from the genus Myrmomyia Silvestri, 1911 which is formally synonymised with Puliciphora, along with P. brachymyrmecis (Silvestri, 1911) comb. n. and P. nigroflava (Borgmeier, 1958) comb. n.
Taxonomic limits of the family Anthomyzidae are prescribed. Two fossil genera are affirmed, viz. Protanthomyza Hennig, 1965 (Baltic amber) and Grimalantha gen. n. (type species: G. vulnerata sp. n.) described from Dominican amber. Fourteen extant genera are recognized, including Chamaebosca Speiser, 1903 (= Penquistus Kieffer, 1906 syn. n.) and Apterosepsis Richards, 1962. New diagnoses of the latter two genera and redescriptions of their type species are given and their relationships are discussed. Chamaebosca cursor (Kieffer, 1906) becomes a new combination. The monotypic genus Echidnocephalodes Sabrosky, 1980 is removed from Anthomyzidae, newly diagnosed and its type species E. barbatus (Lamb, 1914) redescribed and a lectotype designated. Echidnocephalodes is considered to be related to Periscelididae and/or Aulacigastridae, particularly to those genera with symmetrical male postabdomen. The inferred phylogeny of the Anthomyzidae, based on cladistic analysis, is presented. The Opomyzidae are confirmed as a sister-group of the Anthomyzidae, while Protanthomyza is found to be the most primi tive anthomyzid genus forming a sister-group to all recent genera plus the fossil Grimalantha gen. n. The monophylies of the latter group of genera, and of the Anthomyzidae as a whole, are demonstrated. The genus Protanthomyza is classified in a new subfamily Protanthomyzinae, and all remaining genera are placed in the subfamily Anthomyzinae Frey, 1921. An annotated world checklist of the family Anthomyzidae is appended.
A review of all known descriptions of immature stages of the species of the genera Scaeva Fabricius, 1805, Ischiodon Sack, 1913 and Simosyrphus Bigot, 1882 is presented using SEM illustrations. The third instar larval and/or pupal morphology of Scaeva dignota (Rondani, 1857), Scaeva mecogramma (Bigot, 1860) and Simosyrphus grandicornis (Macquart, 1842) are newly described. All species of the genera studied in this paper are very similar for all the studied characters of their immature stages, including the chaetotaxy. Molecular characters of the mitochondrial cox1 gene (1128bp) were used for inferring relationships of the studied taxa. The nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) was additionally applied for species delimitation of the closely related species Scaeva selenitica and S. dignota. The Palaearctic Scaeva species could be split into two groups based on the analysis of morphology of posterior respiratory process. These groups were previously diagnosed as S. selenitica-group [i.e., S. selenitica (Meigen, 1822), S. dignota (Rondani, 1857), S. mecogramma (Bigot, 1860)] and S. pyrastri-group [i.e., S. pyrastri (Linnaeus, 1758), S. albomaculata (Macquart, 1842), S. latimaculata (Brunetti, 1923)]. Semiscaeva Kuznetzov, 1985 and Scaeva Fabricius, 1805 are the available names for these two natural groups that should be classified as subgenera; the former name is proposed for S. selenitica-group and the latter for S. pyrastri-group. Mecoscaeva Kuznetzov, 1985 syn. n. is transferred as a junior synonym of the subgenus Semiscaeva Kuznetzov, 1985 according to the principle of the first reviser. Based on the analysis of immature stages, the generic name Ischiodon Sack, 1913 syn. n. is proposed as a junior synonym of the genus Simosyrphus Bigot, 1882. The similarity of immature stages between Scaeva s. str. and Simosyrphus grandicornis Macquart, 1842, Simosyrphus aegyptius (Wiedemann, 1830) comb. n. and Simosyrphus scutellaris (Fabricius, 1805) comb. n. is discussed. All the proposed subgeneric and generic taxa based on morphological studies received high support employing molecular characters.
The genus Anthelephila Hope, 1833 and its type species, Anthelephila cyanea Hope, 1833, are redescribed. Based on examination of the type material, the following new synonymy is proposed, Anthelephila Hope, 1833 (= Formicoma Motschoulsky, 1845 syn. n.) and A. cyanea Hope, 1833 (= Notoxus caeruleus Thunberg, 1787 syn. n.). Five genus-group names are regarded as unjustified emendations and are placed as synonyms: Anthelephila Hope, 1833 (=Anthelephilus LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849; Formicosoma Motschoulsky, 1845; Myrmecosoma Mannerheim, 1846; Formicomus LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849; Orthauchen Krekich-Strassoldo, 1925 syn. n.). A lectotype is designated for Anthelephila cyanea Hope, 1833.