Friday, May 3, 2024

[Entomology • 2023] Corniphora yanbianensis • A New Genus of Scuttle Flies (Diptera: Phoridae) from China


Corniphora yanbianensis

China, acrossing the Palaearctic and the Oriental Regions, is rich in phorid diversity. During the last decade, considerable progresses have been made on Phoridae fauna study, especially on the amount increase of genera and species described (e.g. Liu, 2001, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021; Liu & Yang, 2016; Liu & Disney, 2022). However, our knowledge on the phorid fauna of China is still limited. Because of the small size and sex dimorphism in Phoridae, their species identification is usually difficult. Investigating phorid resources remains an important task at present. In the ongoing study, some curious specimens have unique combination of characters and could not be assigned to any known genus. Therefore, a new genus with a new species is proposed and described, namely Corniphora yanbianensis gen. & sp. nov. It seems closely related to the genus Phalacrotophora Enderlein, 1912 based on the characters of frons, anterodorsal and posterodorsal rows of setulae of hind tibia, and male terminalia.
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Corniphora yanbianensis gen. et sp. nov.
 1. Body, left view. 2. Head, anterior view. 3. Head, anterior view, showing pedicel. 4. Wing. 5. Fore leg, posterior view. 6. Mid leg, anterior view. 7. Hind leg, anterior view. 8. Male terminalia, left view. 9. Male terminalia, right view. Scale bars: 1=1.0mm; 2–7=0.2mm; 8–9=0.1mm.


Guangchun Liu. 2023. A New Genus of Scuttle Flies (Diptera: Phoridae) from China, with Description of A New Species. Zoological Systematics. 48(4): 361-364 DOI: 10.11865/zs.2023402