Metachela

Camara, Josenir Teixeira & Rafael, Jose Albertino, 2017, New species of Metachela Coquillett (Diptera, Empididae) from the Atlantic Forest, Brazil and a key to the Neotropical species, ZooKeys 714, pp. 129-140 : 131

Metachela

Metachela Coquillett, 1903: 253, 263. Type species: Hemerodromia collusor Melander, 1902 (original designation). Melander 1928: 262 (cat.); Collin 1933: 285 (Patagonian fauna); Melander 1947: 260 (cat.); Smith 1962: 261 (Brazilian fauna); Smith 1967: 42 (Neotropical cat.); MacDonald 1989: 513 (Nearctic fauna); Yang et al. 2007: 276 (world cat.); Cumming and Sinclair 2009:667 (undescribed Costa Rican species).

Diagnosis.

Face with some pale setae, front tibiae with apical rather trowel-like projection beneath and no spine, crossvein h present, cells bm and dm fused (crossvein bm-cu absent), M1 and M2 with common petiole arising from anterior end of crossvein dm-cu and cell CuP present. The Neotropical Metachela differs from the typical northern species by lacking a distinct stylus, having the thorax more pointed anteriorly, possessing four to equally spaced vertical setae and lacking spine below the front tibia. Although there are the differences mentioned, we still think that the Neotropical species are congeneric with the northern species.

Key to the Neotropical species of Metachela