An unusual new species of Scenopinus Latreille (Diptera: Scenopinidae) from Australia

• Main Author: Shaun L. Winterton
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Kelsey; Queensland; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.193.2321; http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2008/f/zt01895p068.pdf

Scenopinidae are a small family (ca. 300 species) of asiloid flies distributed on all continents except Antarctica. This family is closely related to Therevidae (Stiletto flies) based on the secondarily segmented characteristic of their larvae. Scenopinids are typically very small flies, frequently less than 5 mm total body length. As with stiletto flies, the aridification of Australia has lead to significant diversification in Scenopinidae fauna with almost 25 % of the world’s described species (Kelsey 1973). Of those described species in Australia (ca. 80), all are endemic, with only two of the six described genera found outside of the region (Kelsey 1989). Like in all other biogeographic regions, the cosmopolitan Scenopinus Latreille is the dominant genus with 32 species described; this number will surely increase as more species are discovered. The unusual crested frons of Scenopinus pallidipennis (Paramonov) prompted Paramonov (1955) to describe it as the monotypic genus Scenopinula Paramonov. The male was unknown at the time but Kelsey (1969) suspected that it was simply a highly derived species of Scenopinus. Kelsey (1975) subsequently described the male of the species, which did not have the crested frons and displayed all the characteristics of Scenopinus, to which Kelsey placed the species and thus synonymised Scenopinula. Closely related to Scenopinus pallidipennis, Scenopinus stephanos sp. nov. is described herein from a single female specimen from south-western Queensland. This species is distinctive from S. pallidipennis not only by the much larger body size and larger frontal callus in the female, but also by the grossly enlarged fore legs