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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 1: February 2024
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2024-02-27
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.1.2
Page range: 68-71
Abstract views: 11
PDF downloaded: 5

A new fossil genus near Meghyperus Loew from Baltic amber (Diptera: Atelestidae)

Canadian Food Inspection Agency, K.W. Neatby Bldg., C.E.F., 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada; Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K.W. Neatby Bldg., C.E.F., 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada
Seebener Straße 190, 06114 Halle an der Saale, Germany
Liseistieg 10, 22149 Hamburg, Germany
University of Lodz, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Lodz, Poland
Diptera Atelestidae

Abstract

The Atelestidae are a small family of empidoid flies (Diptera: Empidoidea), including 15 recent species in five genera (Sinclair & Grimaldi, 2020). In contrast, they have a rather high fossil diversity (Table 1), with 28 species in nine genera. These fossil taxa are almost entirely from Cretaceous ambers (Canadian, Lebanese, Myanmar, New Jersey, Spanish), and prior to this study only a single described species from Baltic amber (Nemedina eocenica Sinclair & Arnaud, 2001) was known. The extant species are widespread, with two Afrotropical, three Neotropical, two Nearctic and eight Palaearctic species. This family is recognized within the Empidoidea on the basis of their well-developed anal lobe of the wing, distinct alula, R4+5 unforked, M1+2 usually unforked or forked beyond cell dm, cell cua long, at least as long as cell bm, female tergite 10 absent, male terminalia symmetrical and unrotated, with elongate gonocoxal apodemes and shortened hypandrium (Chvála, 1983; Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999; Sinclair & Cumming, 2006).

References

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  2. Cumming, J.M. & Wood, D.M. (2017) [Chapter] 3. Adult morphology and terminology. In: Kirk-Spriggs, A.H. & Sinclair, B.J. (Eds), Manual of Afrotropical Diptera. Volume 1. Introductory chapters and keys to Diptera families. Suricata 4, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, pp. 89–133.
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