Lycoriella Frey, 1948, 1942

Broadley, Adam, Kauschke, Ellen & Mohrig, Werner, 2018, Black fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaridae) found in association with cultivated plants and mushrooms in Australia, with notes on cosmopolitan pest species and biosecurity interceptions, Zootaxa 4415 (2), pp. 201-242 : 214

Genus Lycoriella Frey, 1948

The genus Lycoriella consists of three subgenera Lycoriella Frey, 1948 s . str., Hemineurina Tuomikoski, 1960 and Coelostylina Tuomikoski, 1960 . Pest species are known from the subgenus Lycoriella s. str. only. Species of this subgenus are rather easy to differentiate from species of other genera as well as from the other two subgenera because of the following characteristics: tibial organ with a horseshoe-shaped border apically on the fore tibia, a 3- segmented palpus with a deep and dark sensory pit on the basal segment, scutum with short hairs, bare posterior wing veins, an intergonocoxal lobe or a bristle group on the ventral base of the hypopygium, a slender gonostylus with an apical tooth, a number of spines on the inner side and a long whiplash hair (sometimes two) behind the basal-most spine.

There are about 24 species in the subgenus from the Palaearctic region distributed exclusively across the Holarctic, except the pest species which have spread worldwide. The species prefer temperate zones in Eurasia and North America, but not northern or mountainous areas as preferred by species of the subgenera Hemineurina and Coelostylina .

The pest species have been transported by humans to subantarctic islands (Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands , Tristan da Cunha archipelago, South Georgia) and to at least one Antarctic research base where they appear to have established stable populations.