Oligodranes Loew, 1844

Greathead, D. J. & Evenhuis, N. L., 2001, Annotated keys to the genera of African Bombylioidea (Diptera: Bombyliidae; Mythicomyiidae), African Invertebrates 42 (1820), pp. 105-224 : 135

Oligodranes Loew

Oligodranes Loew, 1844: 160 . Type species: Oligodranes obscuripennis Loew, 1844 , by subsequent designation (Becker 1913: 484).

Comments: Evenhuis (1990 a) showed that most species formerly placed in the genus Oligodranes are actually members of other genera, chiefly Apolysis (which he redefined to include species with an enclosed discal cell), and that Oligodranes itself has characters that exclude it from both the Phthiriinae and the Usiinae . Accordingly, he proposed the new subfamily, Oligodraninae, to contain it. Oligodranes has a distinct face below the antennae, two-segmented palpi, a distinct terminal second flagellomere, and acanthophorites and a sand-chamber. The phylogenetic analysis of Yeates (1994) placed the Oligodraninae between the Mythicomyiidae and the remaining Bombyliidae .

As presently defined, there are only two known species of Oligodranes , both known from the eastern Mediterranean Basin, thus the genus may eventually be found in Egypt. Distribution: Eastern Mediterranean Basin to Central Asia. Doubtfully present in Africa. Species described from Africa hitherto are species of Apolysis sensu Evenhuis (1990 a) .