Morphological phylogeny of the Australian genera of the bee fly subfamily Bombyliinae (Diptera : Bombyliidae) with description of four new genera

Abstract

Bombyliinae, one of the largest subfamilies of Bombyliidae, including 78 genera assigned to four tribes, is distributed on all continents except Antarctica. Their larvae are parasitoids, and adults are important pollinators. The Australian Bombyliinae currently has 17 described genera and 87 described species. The purpose of this study is to establish the phylogeny of the Australian members of the subfamily Bombyliinae, including the boundaries and relationships of the genera, using morphological characters. One maximum parsimony tree was generated from 83 morphological characters scored for 50 species, representing all recognised genera and some unplaced species that we considered may represent new genera. Phylogenetic analysis recovered the relationships between the recognised Australian genera of Bombyliinae and clarified generic limits. The group comprises five main clades, with the genus Pilosia being sister to the remaining Bombyliinae. On the basis of this analysis, four new genera are described: Lambkinomyia Li & Yeates, gen. nov., Dissodesma Bowden & Li, gen. nov., Nigromyia Li & Yeates, gen. nov. and Robertsmyia Li & Yeates, gen. nov. Ten new species are described: Dissodesma immaculata Li & Yeates, sp. nov., Dissodesma flava Li & Yeates, sp. nov., Dissodesma smarti Li & Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia collessi Li & Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia crocea Li & Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia flavimana Li& Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia longistriata Li& Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia pantherina Li& Yeates, sp. nov., Nigromyia parva Li & Yeates, sp. nov. and Nigromyia tomentosa Li & Yeates, sp. nov. Two new junior synonyms are identified: Apiformyia is a junior synonym of Eristalopsis and Brychosoma is a junior synonym of Staurostichus. The following new combinations are proposed: from Apiformyia: Eristalopsis australis (Yeates), comb. nov.; from Bombylius: Dissodesma primogenita (Walker) comb. nov.; from Brychosoma: Staurostichus aureolatus (Walker), comb. nov., Staurostichus hilaris (Walker), comb. nov. and Staurostichus pictipennis (Macquart), comb. nov.; from Laurella: Robertsmyia pallidoventris (Roberts), comb. nov.; from Mandella: Lambkinomyia cinctiventris (Roberts), comb. nov., Lambkinomyia flavovillosa (Roberts), comb. nov., Lambkinomyia pallida (Roberts), comb. nov. and Lambkinomyia rubida (Roberts), comb. nov.; and from Meomyia: Mandella australis (Guerin-Meneville), comb. nov. Show more