Chaetopodella DUDA, 1920

Papp, L., 2008, Afrotropical Species Of Chaetopodella Duda (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 54 (3), pp. 235-255 : 236

Chaetopodella DUDA, 1920

Chaetopodella DUDA, 1920: 435 [as subgenus of Limosina MACQUART, 1835 ].

Type species: Limosina scutellaris HALIDAY, 1836: 329 (mon.).

Chaetopodella DUDA, 1920 : HACKMAN (1969: 203), ROHÁČEK (1983: 112), etc., as genus.

ROHÁČEK (1983) discussed correctly its morphology, incl. that of the genitalia. Characters of the genus were corroborated and supplemented by HAYASHI and PAPP (2007).

The Chaetopodella species are distributed in the Palaearctic (by its type species only), in the Oriental ( HAYASHI & PAPP 2007) and in the Afrotropical regions ( HACKMAN 1969). As we wrote there, the status of the Leptocera (Chaetopodella) albocincta RICHARDS, 1964 (from the Solomon Is, Vanuatu) needs revision. The Neotropical species Leptocera biseta DUDA, 1925 has been transferred to the genus Gyretria ENDERLEIN, 1938 (cf. ROHÁČEK et al. (2001). Leptocera (Chaetopodella) tonsa DUDA, 1925 from Costa Rica belongs to an undescribed genus (see MARSHALL 2001).

Hitherto four Afrotropical species have been described: Ch. cursoni ( RICHARDS, 1939) , Ch. denigrata ( DUDA, 1925) , Ch. impermissa ( RICHARDS, 1980) (syn. Ch. congensis (VANSCHUYTBROECK, 1950)) and Ch. lesnei ( SÉGUY, 1933) . Chaetopodella scutellaris ( HALIDAY, 1836) was also recorded from the Afrotropical region (see RICHARDS 1980) but all these records were obviously based on misidentifications (see below).

This paper includes descriptions of a new subgenus and of five new species. Having had the experience with the females of Chaetopodella that they are difficult to differentiate, particularly so for those species pairs as Ch. cursoni and Ch. aethiopica , the importance of the male genital characters are stressed. The features, which seem proper in the identification of the specimens (both males and females) are given in the key below.