Aprionus Kieffer, 1894

Jaschhof, Mathias & Jaschhof, Catrin, 2017, New species of Aprionus (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Micromyinae) from Sweden and other parts of the Palearctic region, European Journal of Taxonomy 378, pp. 1-38 : 3

Genus Aprionus Kieffer, 1894

The genus has recently been revised ( Jaschhof 1998) and updated ( Jaschhof 2015, 2016; Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009, 2015, 2017), a circumstance that greatly facilitates identifying and classifying unnamed species. Even so, to distinguish closely related Aprionus from each other using male morphology (which is the routine method, see Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009) continues to be challenging. As shown here using the example of Aprionus styloideus Mamaev & Berest, 1990 , previously accepted names may denote species complexes rather than single species, with this kind of hidden biodiversity usually discovered when extensive new study material becomes available.

The genus Aprionus is defined by male genitalic characters, as follows (see Jaschhof & Jaschhof 2009: 219). The gonocoxites are connected ventrobasally by an extremely short bridge, typically a thin, curvate, sclerotized bar; the tegmen of many species is provided with finger-like processes, a structure not known from other Micromyinae ; and the hypoproct is present as a glabrous, usually partially sclerotized structure called subanal plate, which differs from the soft, microtrichose and often sparsely setose double-lobe forming the hypoproct in other Micromyinae .