Enderleinphora, Disney, 2004

Disney, R. Henry L., 2004, Genera resembling Beckerina Malloch (Diptera: Phoridae), Zootaxa 518 (1), pp. 1-28 : 15-16

Genus Enderleinphora gen. nov.

Beckerina fuscohalterata (Enderlein) clearly differs from Beckerina . Indeed, superficially at least, it more closely resembles Plectanocnema Schmitz (see below), but it has a hairy mesopleuron and lacks notopleural glands. This species is therefore assigned to a new genus, as its type species, along with a new species, but which differs in having a bare mesopleuron. However, an unusual feature of the males of both these species is the possession of dorsal abdominal glands, which in all other Gymnophorini are restricted to females except in Brownphora (see above). In this case it serves to indicate that having hairs on the mesopleuron is unlikely to be of generic significance. B. nudipleura , B. pilipleura , and B. polysticha probably belong to this genus also.

The principal autapomorphies of this genus include male, as well as female, with pair of dorsal abdominal glands that discharge between T5 and T6; and possession of more than one hair palisade on the mid and hind tibiae.

Diagnosis

Frons with normal ( Megaselia type) chaetotaxy, except with only one pair of SA bristles; no median furrow; postpedicels subglobose, lacking SPS vesicles (but with shallow pits as in Brownphora ) and with a dorsal arista in both sexes; labella with few spinules below; palps with 7–10 medium to long bristles; mesopleuron with a mid­mesopleural ridge and either bare or with a patch of small hairs adjacent to the notopleuron; the latter with three bristles but no notopleural glands in male; scutellum with four strong bristles; abdominal tergites extending full width of abdomen and their dorsolateral regions with microsetae enlarged and more scale like; male, as well as female, with pair of dorsal abdominal glands that discharge between T5 and T6; male anal tube short; epandrium with hairs on distal half and an enlarged right posterolateral lobe; hypandrium with abbreviated posterior lobes; females lack Dufour’s crop mechanism; hairs below basal half of hind femur not differentiated from adjacent hairs of anterior face; all tibiae lack isolated bristles in upper three quarters; both the mid and hind tibiae have extra hair palisades on their anterior faces, in addition to the dorsal one; some extra palisades also occur on the posterior faces of at least one pair of these tibiae; furthermore there is a sexual dimorphism in the numbers and dispositions of these extra palisades; hind tibia with no clearly differentiated rows of near­dorsal hairs and spinules of apical combs all simple; costal index about 0.5 or more; costal cilia medium to long (>0.12 mm); vein 3 forked and without a hair at base; Sc strong and its tip fusing with vein 1; several bristles on axillary ridge; and membrane with microsetae reduced in size and a little less dense than in Beckerina .

Affinities

In the keys to world genera ( Disney, 1994) the males with a hairy mesopleuron run to couplet 108, but are immediately distinguished by the multiple hair palisades on the hind tibia and by the possession of dorsal abdominal glands in this sex. Males with a bare mesopleuron run to couplet 139, but are excluded by their lack of notopleural glands. Females with a hairy mesopleuron run to couplet 246 lead 2, to Megaselia (part), but are immediately distinguished by the extra hair palisades on the hind tibia and the lack of a median furrow on the frons. Females with a bare mesopleuron run to couplet 195 lead 1, to Plectanocnema , from which they are immediately distinguished by the lack of the median furrow. Otherwise both sexes are distinguished in the keys below.