Austrosciara Schmitz & Mjöberg, 1924

Mohrig, Werner, Kauschke, Ellen & Heller, Kai, 2017, Austrosciara Schmitz & Mjöberg, 1924, a senior synonym of Ctenosciara Tuomikoski, 1960 (Diptera: Sciaridae) and the description of a new brachypterous species in the genus, Zootaxa 4344 (2), pp. 357-366 : 358

Genus Austrosciara Schmitz & Mjöberg, 1924

Type species: Austrosciara termitophila Schmitz & Mjöberg, 1924 ; [ Schmitz & Mjöberg (1924): 1‒3, fig. 1].

= Ctenosciara Tuomikoski, 1960 , syn. n.

Type species: Sciara hyalipennis Meigen, 1804 [ Meigen (1804): 99].

Literature: Tuomikoski (1960): 110; Mohrig & Jaschhof (1999): 14‒27; Mohrig et al. (1992); Sasakawa (1994); Menzel & Mohrig (2000): 293‒299; Sutou & Ito (2003); Wu et al. (2010); 42‒50; Shin et al. (2013); Vilkamaa et al. (2012): 37‒51; Mohrig (2013): 123‒136.

Remarks. Species of Ctenosciara are characterized by macrotrichia on the posterior wing veins, at least on branches of the M-fork (macrotrichia are absent on posterior wing veins in about one third of all species), a 3- segmented palpus, a bare postpronotum, a comb-like row of bristles on the apex of the fore tibia (tibial organ), mostly divided or with 1‒3 bristles separated from the comb, claws with or without teeth, a strong apical tooth on the apex of the gonostylus, a variable number of subapical spines (seldomly a few spines above the tooth) and a simple tegmen on the hypopygium.

Although most of these characters are not developed in the brachypterous female specimens from Victoria – the comb-like row of bristles on the apex of the fore tibia, sometimes distinctly divided, is an unmistakable feature for their classification. The hypopygium of Aus. termitophila resembles, in all details, species which have been classified as Ctenosciara so far by having an apical tooth and subapical spines on the gonostylus. Species of that genus are common and widespread from the Eastern Palaearctic region to the Australian region.