Proceroplatus Edwards, 1925

Penney, David, Evenhuis, Neal L. & Green, David I., 2013, A new species of Proceroplatus Edwards (Diptera: Keroplatidae) in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic, Zootaxa 3686 (5), pp. 593-599 : 594

Genus Proceroplatus Edwards, 1925

Type species: Playura pictipennis Williston, 1896 , by original designation.

Proceroplatus Edwards is comprised of about 38 named species ( Evenhuis 2006b). The genus is pancircumtropical with the vast majority of the species being found in the Neotropical region. Using the keys in Edwards (1929) and Lane (1950), this specimen keys to Proceroplatus . The described species are characterized primarily by thoracic setation (laterotergite and anepisternum pilose, mesonotum uniformly setulose, and meron bare) and with patterning in the wing, but species in the genus have a diverse array of shapes in the male genitalia, especially the gonostyli. Revisionary work is obviously in need to determine generic boundaries and correct species placement. The amber fossil species described in this work has gonostyli (thin, uniramous) that are quite different from most species in the genus (thicker and biramous or with a mesal denticle/tooth or long mesal process), but it fits the current generic concepts in the other salient characters given above. Matile (1982: 217) mentioned an undescribed species with simple gonostyli from Peru, so the variation in genitalic characters noted in the fossil species described here is within the range of variation within the genus as currently known. It is thus placed in Proceroplatus pending future revisionary studies.