Megalopelma Enderlein, 1910

Afiune, Giovana P. S. & Oliveira, Sarah S., 2024, Eighty years later: a new Neotropical species of Megalopelma Enderlein (Mycetophilidae) from the Cerrado and its conservation units, Zootaxa 5523 (5), pp. 519-530 : 522

Megalopelma Enderlein, 1910

Enderlein, 1910: 165. Type-species, M. planiceps Enderlein (orig. des.).

Diagnosis (adapted from Borkent & Wheeler, 2013). Wing. Anterior and posterior forks present and reaching the wing apex, the stem of the anterior fork (M 1+2) short, and the origin of the anterior fork before the origin of the posterior fork. The sc-r is located beyond the origin of Rs. Rows of macrotrichia on wing membrane reflexed towards the wing base.

Distribution. Nearctic (2 spp.), Neotropical (5 spp.), Palaearctic (1 sp.).

According to Borkent & Wheeler (2013) genus diagnosis, Megalopelma has R 2+3 absent or present, but this is the most complicated feature into the genus, because of its plasticity, especially in Neotropical species. R 2+3 absent in all specimens (not as a teratology so far) is visible in M. platyura (see Amorim & Oliveira, 2013: 12, figure 28), M. fraudulenta (see Amorim & Oliveira, 2013: 12, figure 27 and Williston, 1896: Plate VIII, Figure 18), and M. planiceps (see photos of the female type housed at the Polish Academy of Sciences—PAN taken by Dalton de Souza Amorim from the Universidade de São Paulo —USP— Fig. 2 ). M. cellularis Edwards has R 2+3 (see Amorim & Oliveira 2013: 12, Fig. 26) and M. lopesi sp. nov. have R 2+3 present but with teratologies recovered. Hence, we decide do not include this feature in the genus diagnosis.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Megalopelma planiceps Enderlein, 1910. The female type housed at the Polish Academy of Science (courtesy of Dalton de Souza Amorim). A: Wing slide of the female type, not pinned together with the specimen. B: Type labels with the female type in micropin; C: Habitus, lateral view; D: Habitus, dorsal view; E: Wing.