Carlos José Einicker Lamas

Timeless standards for species delimitation

Recently a new species of bombyliid fly, Marleyimyia xylocopae, was described by Marshall & Evenhuis (2015) based on two photographs taken during fieldwork in the Republic of South Africa. This species has no preserved holotype. The paper generated some buzz, especially among dipterists, because in most cases photographs taken in the field provide insufficient information for properly diagnosing and documenting species of Diptera.

On typeless species and the perils of fast taxonomy

C H A R L E S M O R P H Y D . S A N T O S 1, D A L T O N S . A M O R I M 2, B R U N A K L A S S A 1, D I E G O A . F A C H I N 2, S I L V I O S . N I H E I 3, C L A U D I O J . B . D E C A R VA L H O 4, R A F A E L A L . F A L A S C H I 5, C Á T I A A . M E L L O P A T I U 6, M Á R C I A S . C O U R I 6, S A R A H S . O L I V E I R A 7, V E R A C . S I L VA 8, G U I L H E R M E C . R I B E I R O 1, R E N A T O S . C A P E L L A R I 9 and C A R L O S J O S É E . L A M A S 5

Oligoclada mortis sp. nov. from Rondônia State, Brazil, and distributional records of other species of the genus (Odonata: Libellulidae)

Oligoclada mortis sp. nov. (holotype male deposited in MZSP: Brazil, Rondônia State, Porto Velho municipality, “T[ransect] 5-21, seg[ment]12” (09°35′19′′S, 65°02′50′′W, 106 m asl, 13 v 2010, leg. Nogueira & Mendes) is described and illustrated based on two males. The new species fits within Borrors Group III, differing from all other described species in the genus by the combination of an entirely black labium, a large posterior hamule, sickle-shaped and ventrally longer than the genital lobe, and long cerci, with the ratio between epiproct and cerci less than 0.67. A key to males of the seven species of Group III and distributional records based on the specimens deposited in the DZRJ and MZSP Brazilian collections are also presented. The new species is the eighth species of Oligoclada reported from Rondônia, this being the richest Brazilian State for this genus.

Biogeographic analysis of Crocidiinae (Diptera, Bombyliidae): finding congruence among morphological, molecular, fossil and paleogeographical data

Estudos biogeograficos sobre os Bombyliidae sao raros na literatura e nao ha nenhuma informacao sobre sua origem e diversificacao inicial. Neste estudo encontramos evidencias de filogenias moleculares e de registros fosseis suportando a origem dos Bombylioidea no Jurassico Medio. Esse e o nosso ponto de partida para discutir a biogeografia e diversificacao de Crocidiinae. A partir de uma hipotese filogenetica previamente publicada, realizamos uma Analise de Parcimonia de Brooks (BPA) para discutir a historia biogeografica das linhagens de Crocidiinae. Esta subfamilia esta distribuida principalmente por areas aridas dos antigos componentes do supercontinente gondwanico: Chile e Sul da Africa, alem do sudoeste da regiao Paleartica e sudoeste da regiao Neartica. Os eventos vicariantes que afetaram a biogeografia de Crocidiinae ao nivel generico parecem ser a separacao sequencial de um clado laurasico e um clado gondwanico, seguido da divisao deste em seus componentes menores. Com base nesses eventos, a origem dos Crocidiinae pode ser inferida para o Jurassico Medio, mesmo periodo em que outras linhagens de Bombyliidae teriam surgido e irradiado.

Phylogeny of Anophelinae using mitochondrial protein coding genes

Malaria is a vector-borne disease that is a great burden on the poorest and most marginalized communities of the tropical and subtropical world. Approximately 41 species of Anopheline mosquitoes can effectively spread species of Plasmodium parasites that cause human malaria. Proposing a natural classification for the subfamily Anophelinae has been a continuous effort, addressed using both morphology and DNA sequence data. The monophyly of the genus Anopheles, and phylogenetic placement of the genus Bironella, subgenera Kerteszia, Lophopodomyia and Stethomyia within the subfamily Anophelinae, remain in question. To understand the classification of Anophelinae, we inferred the phylogeny of all three genera (Anopheles, Bironella, Chagasia) and major subgenera by analysing the amino acid sequences of the 13 protein coding genes of 150 newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes of Anophelinae and 18 newly sequenced Culex species as outgroup taxa, supplemented with 23 mitogenomes from GenBank. Our analyses generally place genus Bironella within the genus Anopheles, which implies that the latter as it is currently defined is not monophyletic. With some inconsistencies, Bironella was placed within the major clade that includes Anopheles, Cellia, Kerteszia, Lophopodomyia, Nyssorhynchus and Stethomyia, which were found to be monophyletic groups within Anophelinae. Our findings provided robust evidence for elevating the monophyletic groupings Kerteszia, Lophopodomyia, Nyssorhynchus and Stethomyia to genus level; genus Anopheles to include subgenera Anopheles, Baimaia, Cellia and Christya; Anopheles parvus to be placed into a new genus; Nyssorhynchus to be elevated to genus level; the genus Nyssorhynchus to include subgenera Myzorhynchella and Nyssorhynchus; Anopheles atacamensis and Anopheles pictipennis to be transferred from subgenus Nyssorhynchus to subgenus Myzorhynchella; and subgenus Nyssorhynchus to encompass the remaining species of Argyritarsis and Albimanus Sections.

Revision of the New World bee fly genus Heterostylum Macquart (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Bombyliinae)

The genus Heterostylum Macquart and five Neotropical species (H. ferrugineum (Fabricius, 1805), H. hirsutum (Thunberg, 1827), H. rufum (Olivier, 1789), H. haemorrhoicum (Loew, 1863) and H. pallipes Bigot, 1892) are redescribed. The other species, recently redescribed or described are only diagnosed, except for H. deani Painter, 1930, whose spermathecae are described and illustrated for the first time. The main characters of the external morphology were photographed and the male genitalia and female spermathecae illustrated. An identification key to all included species is also presented.

Description of the pupae of Anthrax oedipus oedipus Fabricius and Anthrax oedipus aquilus Marston (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Anthracinae)

The pupae of Anthrax oedipus oedipus Fabricius, 1805 and Anthrax oedipus aquilus Marston, 1970 are described and illustrated. Eleven species of four Hymenoptera families (Apidae, Eumenidae, Megachilidae and Sphecidae) are recorded as hosts of the immature stages of A. o. oedipus and A. o. aquilus.

Revision of the Neotropical robber fly genus Cnodalomyia Hull (Diptera, Asilidae, Asilinae) with description of two new species from Brazil

The genus Cnodalomyia includes only two Brazilian species: C. obtusa Hull, 1962 and C. catarinensis Lamas and Mellinger, 2008. Studying material deposited in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), the authors found a long series of unidentified specimens of the genus, some of which are specimens of C. obtusa labelled with the same data as the type series as well as other specimens from different localities, representing an enlargement of the known geographic records of the species. This material, together with the types of C. catarinensis, enables this revision. A redescription of the genus and of its type species, C. obtusa, including descriptions and illustrations of its spermathecae and egg, until now never described, the description and illustration of two new species (C. artigasi sp. nov. and C. papaveroi sp. nov.), the diagnosis and egg description of C. catarinensis and an identification key to all included species are presented herein.

Description of the larva and pupal case of Ommatius orenoquensis Bigot (Diptera, Asilidae, Ommatiinae)

Description of the larva and pupal case of Ommatius orenoquensis Bigot (Diptera, Asilidae, Ommatiinae). The last instar larva and the pupal case of Ommatius orenoquensis Bigot, 1896 from a Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna) area in Sao Paulo, southeastern Brazil, are for the first time described and illustrated.

Redescription of two neotropical species of Toxophora Meigen (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Toxophorinae)

Duas especies de Toxophora Meigen, 1848 sao redescritas (T. aurea Macquart, 1848 e T. leucon Seguy, 1930) e as terminalias masculinas, femininas e os ovos sao aqui descritos e ilustrados. Ambas as especies podem ser facilmente distintas pelas seguintes caracteristicas: T. leucon: corpo coberto por escamas castanho-escuras, faixa longitudinal formada por escamas amarelas no centro do mesonoto, escutelo e abdomen e abdomen fino; T. aurea: antenas com escamas curtas castanhoescuras, corpo coberto por escamas amarelas e manchas de escamas castanho-escuras com reflexo esverdeado, asas sem a nervura inter-radial, femures com escamas amarelas e ausencia de cerdas nos machos e abdomen largo.