Costarica Mengual & Thompson

Mengual, Ximo, Ruiz, Carlos, Rojo, Santos, Ståhls, Gunilla & Thompson, Christian, 2009, A conspectus of the flower fly genus Allograpta (Diptera: Syrphidae) with description of a new subgenus and species, Zootaxa 2214, pp. 1-28 : 17-18

Subgenus Costarica Mengual & Thompson , subgen. nov.

Type-species: Allograpta zumbadoi Thompson

Diagnosis. Face greatly produced anteriorly, with no tubercle but distinctly concave beneath antenna creating an appearance of a tubercle; oral opening about 5 times as long as wide, with oral apex greatly extended beyond level of antennal base; antennal pits distinctly separated; plumula absent; subscutellar fringe absent; wing microtrichose, without apical dark macula ; metasternum bare; abdomen narrowly petiolate or elongate.

Included species. NEOTROPICAL: ** nishida Mengual & Thompson , sp. nov. Costa Rica; ** zumbadoi Thompson 2000: 34 (Allograpta) Costa Rica.

Costarica is readily distinguished from all other Allograpta groups by the distinctive facial shape and by the dense thick appressed pile on 1st and 2nd terga in the males. These characters are unique among flower flies.

The life history of the type species, zumbadoi , has been worked out by Zuijen and Nishida (2009) . The larval stages are stem-borers in Centropogon (Campanulaceae) . The plant genus ranges from Mexico to Peru and contains some 230 species, but so far these flies are only known from the higher elevations in Costa Rica. Etymology. The name Costarica is the name of the country which is the home for the two included species and is to be treated as feminine.