Genus Elaphropeza Macquart

Elaphropeza Macquart, 1827: 86 . Type species: Tachydromia ephippiata Fallén, 1815, by monotypy. Ctenodrapetis Bezzi, 1904: 351 (as subgenus of Drapetis). Type species: Drapetis (Ctenodrapetis) ciliatocosta Bezzi, 1904, by subsequent designation of Melander (1928: 309).

Remarks. Elaphropeza is the second largest genus of Tachydromiinae after Platypalpus and the largest among Drapetini genera. It has a circumtropical distribution and currently includes 212 named species worldwide. In the Afrotropics Elaphropeza remains poorly studied with only 22 known species (excluding the 18 new species described here). However, it is evident from the large amount of material from different part of the Afrotropics which we have seen, but which is not treated here, that this group is very diverse in this region and many new species await to be described.

Most of recorded Afrotropical species of Elaphropeza are known from South Africa (Smith 1969) and Sierra Leone (Raffone 1990, 1991, 1994, 2011). Otherwise there are a few occasional records from Ethiopia (Becker 1909, 1910), Cape Verde Is. (Frey 1958), Zimbabwe (Adams 1905), Sudan (Raffone 1991) and Madagascar (Shamshev & Grootaert 2009). Only two species have previously been reported from the Congo (Bezzi 1908; Collart 1934). We describe 18 new species from the Congo and, thus, we increase the number of Afrotropical species of Elaphropeza to 40.

Shamshev & Grootaert (2007) arranged all Oriental species of Elaphropeza into two informal species groups, namely the E. ephippiata and E. biuncinata -groups, keyed below. We follow that subdivision here again. It should be noted that species of the E. biuncinata -group have been recognised for the first time among Afrotropical Elaphropeza .