Tauromima Papp, 1979

Costa, Daniel N. R., Mathis, Wayne N., Marinoni, Luciane & Sepúlveda, Tatiana A., 2024, Phylogeny and taxonomy of the shore-fly tribe Scatellini (Diptera: Ephydridae: Ephydrinae), Zoologia (e 23100) 41, pp. 1-35 : 25

Tauromima Papp, 1979

Tauromima Papp 1979: 359 (feminine). Type species: Tauromima mountwilhelmi Papp 1979 , original designation. – Mathis and Zatwarnicki 1995: 288 [world catalog].

Diagnosis. Tauromima is distinguished from other genera of Scatellini by the following combination of characters: frons as long as wide; genal setae absent, only a row of setulae at ventral margin of gena: posterior notopleural setae at the same level of anterior setae; two rows of acrostichal setae, extending to scutellum, size of setae uniform.

Description. Small shore flies, body length 1.73 mm; dark brown species. Only apterous species known.

Head: Frons as long as wide, frontal vitta subshiny, not densely microtomentose; 2 lateroclinate fronto-orbital setae. Antenna short, concolorous with head; setae of pedicel typical; arista shorter than antenna, pubescent. Face conspicuously protruding, with an interfoveal, dorsal hump; facial setae conspicuous, 1–2 lateral facial setae curved laterodorsally; long ventroclinate setae along oral margin. Eye wider than high, ob1iquely oriented to general plane of head; gena small (gena to eye ratio <0.2); a row of setulae at the ventral margin of gena, without a distinct genal seta.

Thorax: Generally reduced, length shorter than length of head; mesonotum flat; two rows of acrostichal setae, extending to scutellum, size of setae uniform; a row of small dorsocentral setulae plus 1 pair of postsutural dorsocentral setae; scutellum short; basal scutellar setae same length as apical setae; pre and postsutural supra-alar seta indistinguishable or absent; one pair of setae on the side of scutellum, same length of scutellar setae; posterior notopleural seta same level of anterior seta. Wing almost apterous, only a slight bump evident; halteres absent. Legs typical, without distinct setae; femur stronger than tibiae and tarsi; tarsi concolorous with legs; tarsal claws conspicuously curved and puvilli present below each claw.

Abdomen: Tergites concolorous with the thorax, microtomentose but somewhat subshiny, densely setulose. Male terminalia: unknown; female terminalia: unknown.

Distribution. Australasian/Oceanian: Papua New Guinea (New Guinea).

Remarks. This genus includes a single species, T. mountwilhelmi , the only essentially apterous shore fly known. This species was collected at Mount Wilhelm (3400 m), Pap - ua New Guinea. Nothing is known about the natural history of this species. Tauromima seems to be related to genera of Scatellini that have a single row of setulae along the ventral margin of the gena, similar to Haloscatella , Amalopteryx and Philotelma . Zatwarnicki and Mathis (1994) proposed Tauromima as the sister-group of Limnellia and Scatophila . We did not include this species in our taxon sampling; thus, we advocate the precedent of Zatwarnicki and Mathis (1994) and place this genus near Limnellia and Scatophila .