Avenaphora Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999

Shamshev, Igor V. & Perkovsky, Evgeny E., 2022, A review of fossil taxa of Microphorinae (Diptera, Dolichopodidae sensu lato), with redescription of the Eocene genus Meghyperiella Meunier, Zootaxa 5150 (3), pp. 411-427 : 412

Avenaphora Grimaldi & Cumming

Avenaphora Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999: 61 . Type species: A. hispida Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999 , by original designation.

Included species. Avenaphora hispida Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999: 61 (only male) (Bcharre, northern Lebanon; Lower Cretaceous, Barremian); A. gallica Nel, Garrouste & Daugeron, 2017: 2 (only female) (Piolenc, southern France; Upper Cretaceous, early Santonian).

Remarks. Grimaldi & Cumming (1999) established this genus to include a single species found in amber from Bcharre, northern Lebanon (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian): Avenaphora hispida Grimaldi & Cumming. Nel et al. (2017) described a second species of Avenaphora from amber of Piolenc, southern France (Upper Cretaceous, early Santonian): A. gallica Nel, Garrouste & Daugeron. Grimaldi & Cumming (1999) have listed plesiomorphic and apomorphic features of Avenaphora . The latter includes the dichoptic condition of the male, loss of cell dm (dm-m absent), and the form of the hypopygium, which is relatively symmetrical externally. Nel et al. (2017) indicated that acanthophorite spines (plesiomorphic) are present in the female of A. gallica . In addition, Avenaphora possesses some characters that are unique for microphorine genera: frons with three pairs of frontal-orbital setae (anterior pair inclinate) in both sexes; cell bm slender; cell cua slender and truncate apically. Some important characters remain unknown in Avenaphora ; e.g., structure of the prothorax and antennal position. The costal vein ending at R 4+5 was noted for both species of Avenaphora , however, this is not evident at least for A. gallica ( Nel et al. 2017: 3, fig. 2B). It is probably undisputable that Avenaphora shows closer affinities to the Parathalassiinae + Dolichopodidae sensu stricto lineage than to the Microphor genera group ( Grimaldi & Cumming 1999; Cumming & Brooks 2002; Ulrich 2004; Nel et al. 2017). See additional notes under Pristinmicrophor Tang, Shi, Wang & Yang.