A conspectus of Australian Apotropina (Diptera, Chloropidae) with the description of two new species Author Ang, Yuchen https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5889-018X Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Dr., 117377 Singapore, Singapore nhmay@nus.edu.sg Author Lumbers, James https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4895-0936 Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), CSIRO Black Mountain, 1 Clunies Ross St, Acton Black Mountain, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia & Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia Author Riccardi, Paula R. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4850-7524 Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Museum fuer Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany paularriccardi@gmail.com text ZooKeys 2023 2023-12-21 1187 261 299 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1187.108497 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1187.108497 1313-2970-1187-261 919C320FAA724F1D90281ECB12948B8D E72AB439483E596BAE418C77FC8B90AF Apotropina bispinosa (Becker, 1911) Fig. 24A-C Oscinella bispinosa Becker, 1911: 152. Oscinelloides bispinosa : Malloch 1940 : 268. Type locality and distribution. Australia: Queensland (Weipa). PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Huon (Sattleberg), New Britian (Rabaul). Taxonomic notes. This species has a problematic type series assignment. It was originally described from, and limited to, Papua New Guinea based on six specimens ( Becker 1911 ). Malloch (1940) identified an additional female of Apotropina bispinosa from Papua New Guinea and transferred this species to his newly erected genus Oscinelloides Malloch, providing further morphological description of the species. Oscinelloides was subsequently synonymized with Apotropina ( Sabrosky 1989 ). Thereafter, specimens from Australia were identified to the A. bispinosa (Forster, 1992). We were able to examine two specimens in MfN marked as types (see Fig. 24 for one imaged specimen; label transcription: "Sattleberg, Huon-Golf.; 547474; Typus; N.-Guinea, Biro 1899.; Sammlung Dr. Th. Becker; Rhodesiella sp., det J.W. Ismay 2002; http://coll.mfn-berlin.de/u/5c8582") and found that both specimens have no dorsocentral setae except for the posterior one and have completely dark brown femora and tibiae. These features do not correspond to descriptions provided by Becker (1911) and Malloch (1940) , where both state that A. bispinosa has two strong pairs of dorsocentral setae, lighter-colored yellowish legs with darkened apices on mid and hind femora as well as fore tibiae. In fact, the morphology of the examined specimens matches that of genus Rhodesiella Adams. Given that the two MfN specimens [547474 (5c8582 and 5c85bb)] do not correspond to the original description (see Suppl. material 1) despite belonging to the same locality, a detailed assessment on A. bispinosa 's type series should be done. With that, the designation of a lectotype would clarify this species identity. Furthermore, as we could not examine Forster's (1992) Australian specimens, we refrain from adding A. bispinosa to the key. Figure 24. Apotropina bispinosa (Malloch) syntype ♀ 57474 (5C8582) A habitus, lateral view B habitus, dorsal view C specimen labels. Figure 25. illustrations for various Apotropina spp. A A. aequalis head, lateral view (from Becker 1911 : Tafel I, Fig. 15 ) B A. aequalis hind tibial spur (from Malloch 1940 : 271, Fig. 15 ) C A. nudiseta antennal arista (from Malloch 1940 : 271, Fig. 17 ) D A. nudiseta hind tibial spur (from Malloch 1940 : 271, Fig. 18 ) E A. proxima habitus, lateral view (from Rayment 1959 : plate XXXIX, Fig. 1 ) F A. proxima thorax, dorsal view (from Rayment 1959 : plate XXXIX, Fig. 2 ).