Ectophasiopsis Townsend, 1915

Dios, Rodrigo de V. P. & Nihei, Silvio S., 2017, Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical genus Ectophasiopsis Townsend, 1915 (Diptera: Tachinidae: Phasiinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 334, pp. 1-27 : 3

Genus Ectophasiopsis Townsend, 1915

Systematic placement of Ectophasiopsis

In recent classifications, the tribe Trichopodini is usually placed within Gymnosomatini , considering some shared characteristics of the male terminalia ( Tschorsnig 1985). In the last morphological phylogeny of the family (Cerretti et al. 2014), those two tribes were grouped together in Gymnosomatini , with one apomorphy of the male terminalia (sperm duct developed into three well sclerotized ducts). In this morphological phylogeny, a single genus of Trichopodini was included ( Trichopoda ). The genus Ectophasiopsis shares most of the male terminalia characteristics with Trichopoda , including the sperm duct that is simple, the other two tubes are greatly reduced, to almost invisible, as Tschorsnig (1985) has already mentioned. More inclusive systematic studies, with wider sampling, are necessary to clarify these relationships.

The former tribe Trichopodini was divided by Sabrosky (1950) into three generic groups: Acaulona - complex (7 genera), Trichopoda -complex (12 genera) and Xanthomelanodes -complex (2 genera). The Xanthomelanodes -complex was grouped by the presence of basal scutellar bristles widely divergent and much longer than the apical bristles; the Trichopoda -complex was grouped by the presence of a dorsal row of feather-like bristles on the posterior tibia; and the Acaulona -complex was grouped by the absence of those bristles.

Sabrosky also split the Trichopoda -complex into two subgroups: “ Trichopoda typica” and “ Trichopoda atypica”. The subgroup “typica” included the genera Eutrichopoda Townsend, 1908 , Trichopoda and Polistomyia (Townsend, 1908) , the latter a junior synonym of Trichopoda ; the subgroup “atypica” included the remaining genera. The “typica” subgroup is differentiated by a postcoxal area (between the hind coxae and first abdominal sternite) membranous and sunken or shriveled, and the front somewhat narrowed at vertex, the sides parallel on the basal half then suddenly diverging. The “atypica” subgroup have the postcoxal area closed (sclerotized) and the front different from that described for the other group ( Sabrosky 1950).

Nowadays the valid genera in the “ Trichopoda typica” subgroup sensu Sabrosky (1950) are Eutrichopoda and Trichopoda , and now we also include Ectophasiopsis in this group. Although a taxonomic revision of Eutrichopoda and Trichopoda was not the aim of the present study, those genera are included in the identification keys for that subgroup. Revisions of these genera are being made by the authors.