Just a Fragment of Undescribed Diversity: Twenty New Oriental and Palearctic Species of Sciaroidea (Diptera), including DNA Sequence Data and Two New Fossil Genera

Abstract

<p><br></p><p>Simple Summary Two-winged flies (Diptera) are one of the megadiverse insect orders, in terms of biodiversity. The suborder Nematocera (=lower Diptera) includes several particularly species-rich groups, such as fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae and related families of the superfamily Sciaroidea) and gall midges (Cecidomyiidae), the latter presumably even being the most diverse family of Diptera of all. Although every year dozens of new species from these families are being described, either from extant fauna or from the fossil record, an amazing number of species still remain undescribed, especially outside Europe or North America. In this paper, another portion of new taxa of fungus gnats is described, enabling to better understand the fascinating and still little-known world of insects on Earth. The following 17 extant new species of Sciaroidea (Diptera: Bibionomorpha) are described: Bolitophila nikolae Sevcik sp. nov. (Bolitophilidae, Taiwan), Catocha jingfui sp. nov. (Cecidomyiidae, Taiwan), Catocha manmiaoe sp. nov. (Cecidomyiidae, Taiwan), Catocha shengfengi sp. nov. (Cecidomyiidae, Taiwan), Planetella taiwanensis sp. nov. (Cecidomyiidae, Taiwan), Diadocidia pseudospinusola sp. nov. (Diadocidiidae, Taiwan), Asioditomyia bruneicola sp. nov. (Ditomyiidae, Brunei), Asioditomyia lacii sp. nov. (Ditomyiidae, Taiwan), Ditomyia asiatica sp. nov. (Ditomyiidae, Thailand), Chetoneura davidi sp. nov. (Keroplatidae, Brunei), Euceroplatus mantici sp. nov. (Keroplatidae, Thailand), Setostylus fangshuoi sp. nov. (Keroplatidae, Taiwan), Platyceridion yunfui sp. nov. (Keroplatidae, Hainan), Terocelion adami sp. nov. (Keroplatidae, Taiwan), Hadroneura martini sp. nov. (Mycetophilidae, Taiwan), Paratinia furcata sp. nov. (Mycetophilidae, Czech Republic, Slovakia), and Nepaletricha sikorai sp. nov. (Sciaroidea incertae sedis, Thailand). Two new genera are described from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, Burmasymmerus gen. nov. (Ditomyiidae, type species Burmasymmerus korneliae sp. nov., including also B. wieslawi sp. nov.), representing the first record of the family Ditomyiidae from the Mesozoic, and Burmatricha gen. nov. (Sciaroidea incertae sedis, type species Burmatricha mesozoica sp. nov.). Molecular phylogeny of Ditomyiidae, based on two DNA markers (28S, COI), as well as that of Catocha Haliday, 1833, based on the mitochondrial COI and 16S fragments, are also presented.</p>