Peyerimhoffia Kieffer, 1903

Mohrig, Werner, Kauschke, Ellen & Broadley, Adam, 2018, New black fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaridae) from Eastern Australia, Zootaxa 4450 (2), pp. 203-241 : 224-226

Subgenus Peyerimhoffia Kieffer, 1903

TypE spEciEs: Peyerimhoffia brachyptera KiEffEr, 1903 [ KiEffEr (1903): 198–200, fig. 1, platE I, figs 1, 6, 8].

LitEraturE: Tuomikoski (1960): 40–41; MEnZEl & Mohrig (2000): 268–269, 85–86, figs 230–234; Vilkamaa & Hippa (2005): fig. 12 C, D; Shi et al. (2014): 67–83, fig. 1 A–E, fig. 2 A–E.

The subgenus Peyerimhoffia is characterized by a large palpus with few bristles, consisting of just one segment (sometimes with a reduced second segment) without a deepened sensory area and a non-differentiated tibial organ without a semicircular structure. The postpronotum is mostly with a few short bristles. The gonostylus is short and bulbous-oval in shape and has a large tooth with a distinct fissure medially. It is known from the Palaearctic region and only 5 species have so far been described.

Comments. Cratyna (Pey.) vagabunda was temporarily united with species of the Corynoptera crassistylata group in a newly established genus Peyerimhoffia based on convergent structures of the gonostylus ( Vilkamaa & Hippa 2005; Shi et al. 2014). However, Cratyna vagabunda has nothing to do with species of the Corynoptera crassistylata group. Cratyna vagabunda belongs without doubt to the genus Cratyna mainly by having a 1- segmented palpus and a non-differentiated tibial organ. A recent molecular phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the species Peyerimhoffia vagabunda is related to species of Cratyna s. str. and Spathobdella ( Shin et al. 2013) . From the seven species described by Shi et al. only Cratyna hamata (Shi & Huang) comb. n. and Cratyna obesa (Shi & Huang) comb. n. belong to the subgenus Peyerimhoffia . The other five species are newly combined in the genus Corynoptera , crassistylata group [ C. sparsula (Shi & Huang) comb. n., C. brachypoda* (Shi & Huang) comb. n., C. yunnana (Shi & Huang) comb. n., C. shennongjiana (Shi & Huang) comb. n. and in Corynoptera s. str. [ Corynoptera longiprojecta (Shi & Huang) comb. n.]. Corynoptera longiprojecta (Shi & Huang) is identical in all details with Corynoptera diversicalcaria Mohrig, 2004 from Papua New Guinea and a junior synonym to the latter.

* Peyerimhoffia brachypoda Shi & Huang (2014) is spelled brachypodua in the Abstract and brachypoda throughout the rest of the paper, being alternative original spellings. We hereby acting as the First Reviser, select the spelling brachypoda as valid, so that the spelling brachypodua is an incorrect original spelling (Art. 24.2.3), ( ICZN 1999).