Two new species of crane fly (Diptera: Limoniidae) from Tasmania, Australia
Author
Billingham, Zacariah D.
0000-0002-6163-9073
Department of Ecology, Environment & Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic 3086, Australia.
zac.billingham@ghd.com
Author
Theischinger, Gunther
0000-0002-5207-2626
Australian Museum, Entomology, 6 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia. & theischingergunther @ gmail. com; http: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 5207 - 2626
theischingergunther@gmail.com
Author
Levesque-Beaudin, Valerie
0000-0002-6053-0949
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, N 1 G 2 W 1, Canada. & valerie @ uoguelph. ca; http: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 6053 - 0949
valerie@uoguelph.ca
text
Zootaxa
2023
2023-03-16
5256
1
77
83
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5256.1.5
1175-5326
Genus
Molophilus
Curtis, 1833
Type
species:
Molophilus brevipennis
Curtis, 1833
, by original designation.
Diagnosis. Rostrum short, little developed; meron between mesocoxa and metacoxa extensive, seen from lateral aspect larger than mesocoxa; setae of legs simple;
R
l
longer than 2/3 wing length; Rs ending in cell r
3
;
R
2+3
and
R
4+5
distinct;
R
5
not fused with M
1+2
; r-m present; CuA
2
and A
l
not fused distally; a
2
long and wide (modified from
Theischinger 1992
).
The genus
Molophilus
includes over 1,000 species, present on all continents except
Antarctica
. Their diversity is greatest in the Australasian region, with 464 species occurring across
Australia
,
New Caledonia
,
New Zealand
,
Papua New Guinea
and West Papua (
Oosterbroek 2023
).
Australia
boasts more species of
Molophilus
than any other country or continent with 325 species recorded, including the species newly described here. Except for a single species,
M.
(
Molophilus
)
flavonotatus
Skuse, 1890
, which is also known from
New Zealand
, the Australian species of
Molophilus
are all endemic.
Theischinger (1992)
undertook a comprehensive review of the Australian
Molophilus
, describing many new species and providing a key to the subgenera and species groups. Following Theischinger’s review additional new species have been described over numerous works (
Billingham & Theischinger 2018a
,
2018b
,
2019a
,
2019b
;
Theischinger 1994
,
1996a
,
1999
,
2000
,
2012
, 2017).
Molophilus
is readily distinguished from other Australian Limoniid genera using the key provided in
Theischinger (1996b)
.