Atherigona Rondani, 1856

Couri, Marcia S., Pont, Adrian C. & Daugeron, Christophe, 2010, The Muscidae (Diptera) of New Caledonia 2503, Zootaxa 2503 (1), pp. 1-61 : 12-15

Genus Atherigona Rondani

Atherigona Rondani, 1856: 97 . Type-species: Anthomyia varia Meigen, 1826 , orig. des.

Diagnosis. Small flies, body colour grey or yellowish-grey; head angular, with long face and long antennal postpedicel; arista bare; one pair of reclinate orbital setae; palpus differentiated between the two sexes: in subgenus Acritochaeta Grimshaw , male palpus elongate and flattened, female palpus large and band-shaped; and in subgenus Atherigona Rondani , male palpus short, club-like, and female palpus long and narrow; dorsocentral setae reduced; katepisternals 1:2; setae on scutum and legs very short; hind tibia without calcar; wing veins bare; abdomen in males of subgenus Atherigona with a trifoliate process and a hypopygial prominence, both absent in subgenus Acritochaeta ; adult female with (subgenus Atherigona ) or without (subgenus Acritochaeta ) a pair of small anterior plates on tergite 8 of ovipositor.

new record, * = endemic, *1 = probable female of Myospila propinqua , *2 = doubtfully also recorded from Vanuatu)

Comments. The genus was first recorded from New Caledonia by Pont (1986b), based on material from Dumbéa and deposited in CNC and BMNH, and then more recently by Shinonaga et al. (1991). Four species have been recorded: A. orientalis Schiner , A. oryzae Malloch , A. simplex (Thomson) and A. tibiseta Malloch. Two new records are presented here: Atherigona poecilopoda Bezzi and Atherigona bidens Hennig. Pont (1973c and 1986b) reviewed, respectively, the Oriental species of economic importance and the Australian species, and Pont & Magpayo (1995) revised the Philippine species, and all the species previously recorded from New Caledonia were treated in these papers. Curran (1929) mentioned two species of Atherigona from New Caledonia which he could not identify. They probably belong to the species enumerated above.