Megaselia Rondani, 1856

DISNEY, R. H. L., 2003, Tasmanian Phoridae (Diptera) and some additional Australasian species, Journal of Natural History 37 (5), pp. 505-639 : 525

Genus Megaselia Rondani, 1856

Type species. Megaselia costalis (von Roser, 1840) (= Megaselia crassineura Rondani, 1856 ).

More than 1400 species are currently recognized in this genus, but far more species remain to be described. The Australian species are keyed by Borgmeier (1967a, 1967b), but in using these keys it needs to be recognized that he did not sufficiently allow for intraspecific variations in the costal index and costal ratios or variations in the size of some bristles. The literature for the identification of the world species is reviewed by Disney (1994b). In the conspectus below, four species are given code letters only as they are only known as females that have not yet been associated with their males. These probably belong to new species whose males remain unknown. However, there is now a moratorium on formally naming new species in this genus on the basis of females only, as the initial recognition of new species is now primarily based upon the details of the male hypopygium.

Because of the size of this genus, the descriptions of the new species below are brief. They are essentially supplementary to the somewhat lengthy diagnoses. The latter start with indicating how the species runs down in Borgmeier’s keys and then proceeds to list additional characters required to characterize it. With the actual descriptions, the chaetotaxy of the scutum can be assumed to be standard (i.e. each side with a humeral, two or three notopleurals, an intra-alar, a postalar and a prescutellar dorsocentral bristle) unless stated otherwise; so only the number of notopleurals is specified in most cases. Likewise the spines of the hind tibial combs of all Tasmanian species seen so far are simple and the third antennal segments are all subglobose.

In Borgmeier’s (1967a) key to group V (p. 206) the first couplet should be deleted as M. curtineura (Brues) has a bare mesopleuron, and is therefore covered by the keys in part II (Borgmeier, 1967b), where it appears under its synonym M. insulana (Brues) . In the keys to group IV, lead 2 of couplet 11 (p. 206) should direct one to couplet 14 (as opposed to the non-existent couplet 16).