Physiphora Fallén, 1810

Chen, Xiao-Lin & Kameneva, Elena P., 2007, A review of Physiphora Fallén (Diptera: Ulidiidae) from China, Zootaxa 1398, pp. 15-28 : 16-17

Genus Physiphora Fallén, 1810

Body mostly black, often with strong green to red metallic sheen. Head at most a little longer than high. Frons smoth, or rarely pitted; frontal vitta without setulae, in posterior part with four low longitudinal swellings, often with one or two spots of whitish microtrichia. Face saddle­like, slightly concave in profile, with shallow and poorly delimited antennal grooves, usually white microtrichose in dorsal portion (at least between antennae). First flagellomere short, not over three times as long as wide, rounded at upper apex. Scutellum triangular, with 2 pairs of scutellar setae. Katepisternal, anepisternal and postpronotal setae present. Wing entirely hyaline, vein R1 bare, cell r4+5 apically narrowed or closed; cell bcu with long extension at posteroapical corner. Male with 5, female with 6 visible preabdominal segments; female sternites 3–6 without anteromedial apodemes; female tergite and sternite 6 subequal, conspicuously narrower and shorter than tergite 5. Male postabdomen: sternite 8 setulose; epandrium large, separated by seam from short surstyli; proctiger low, not protruding posteriorly, but with pair of short submedial nipple­like ventral projections bearing single apical seta; subepandrial sclerite flat, V­ or U­shaped, uniformly setulose over posterior 0.6, without thickened toothlike setulae (prensisetae); hypandrium U­shaped, asymmetrical: right gonite strongly developed, ovoid, with sclerotized lateral sclerite, left gonite short, almost inconspicuous, both gonites without setulae; apodeme of hypandrium Y­shaped, with short arm and inconspicuous vanes of fultella; sensillar plates at sides of phallus base well­developed, rounded, simple; phallus large, thick and mostly bare, with single membranous sack­like projection subapically and apical area bearing several semi­free hook­like sclerotized appendages; epiphallus not expressed; ejaculatory apodeme wide fan­like, with short apical portion and relatively small sperm pump. Female postabdomen: oviscape short, at most as long as tergite 5 and 0.25–0.3 times as long as aculeus; eversible membrane as long as aculeus, with 2 pairs of bare taeniae almost reaching its posterior margin; membrane finely microtrichose in anterior 0.8 and covered with fine multidentate scales in posterior 0.2 of its length. Aculeus narrow and long, 6.5–12 times as long as wide, with elongate oval cercal unit bearing 2 pairs of long setae (basal dorsal and subapical lateroventral) and several shorter setulae on ventral and latero­ventral side; sternite 8 well­sclerotized, with 11–12 setulae on each side; medial groove covered with monodentate scales; vagina with simple, finger­like ventral receptacle; 3 spherical or mushroom­like spermathecae, 2 left on T­shape bifurcated common duct.

Physiphora alceae and P. clausa are widespread in all zoogeographical regions. There are 12 species of Physiphora occurring in the Afrotropical Region. Only P. chalybea Hendel was described from Central Asia, and 3 species are occurring in both North Africa as well as the tropical Africa. Physiphora aperta Steyskal is endemic to Solomon Is. Five species have been listed from the Oriental Region, one of them ( P. longicornis Hendel ) is assumed endemic of Taiwan, and another ( P. euphorbiae Krivosheina & Krivosheina ) was recently described from India; in addition, P. hainanensis sp. n. from Southern China is described in this work.