Brownphora, Disney, 2004

Disney, R. Henry L., 2004, Genera resembling Beckerina Malloch (Diptera: Phoridae), Zootaxa 518 (1), pp. 1-28 : 13

Genus Brownphora gen. nov.

The type species, Brownphora sinefurca , of this newly designated genus clearly differs from Beckerina . However, it is evidently closely related. Its principal autapomorphies include the male with notopleural gland orifice exposed to view but partly shielded by upper edge of rim; male, as well as female, a pair of dorsal abdominal glands that discharge between T5 and T6; female with front basitarsus inflated; and vein 3 unforked.

Diagnosis

Frons broader than high, with 2 SA bristles and 4­4­4 bristles; median furrow represented by a vestige between the SA bristles only; postpedicel of male elongated and tapered apically, with a dorsal pre­apical arista, and no SPS vesicles (but the surface has pale shallow pits that may resemble SPS vesicles but are not obscured by the microsetae of the integument that overlie true SPS vesicles); labella with few spinules on lower faces; palps with several medium length bristles; mesopleuron bare and with a mid­mesopleural ridge; notopleuron with three bristles; male with notopleural gland orifice exposed to view but partly shielded by upper edge of rim; scutellum with four bristles, the posterior pair being a little shorter than the anterior pair; abdominal tergites extending full width of abdomen and in the female 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 hypopygium with a short anal tube; short, but broad, subequal posteroventral lobes to epandrium; abbreviated posterior lobes of hypandrium; female lacks 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; hind tibia with a single dorsal hair palisade but no clearly differentiated rows of near­dorsal hairs and spinules of apical combs all simple; female front basitarsus inflated; wing with costal index about 0.5; costal cilia shortish (<0.1 mm); vein 3 unforked; thin veins very pale; and microsetae of membrane greatly reduced in size and density; axillary ridge typically with three bristles.

Affinities

In the keys to world genera ( Disney, 1994) the male (subsequently described by Brown, 1997) runs to couplet 117 lead 1, to Woodiphora (part), as some Woodiphora species have also lost the fork of vein 3, but the males of Woodiphora have the notopleural gland orifice in a cleft. Brown (1997) mistakenly stated that the male runs to couplet 33. He evidently misread couplet 14 lead 1, which requires the postpedicel (third antennal segment) to be not only with a tapered extension but the arista to be apical. In Brownphora the arista is clearly dorsal and pre­apical in position. The female runs to couplet 181 lead 1, to Beckerina (part), this part being this species. The lack of SPS vesicles in the postpedicels, loss of the median furrow on the frons and the undifferentiated hairs below the hind femur should further distinguish this genus from Woodiphora . Otherwise both sexes are distinguished in the keys below.