Grichanov, I.Ya. 

Last updated: 23 August 2003
Afrotropical Dolichopodinae (Diptera: Dolichopodidae)

Grichanov,I.Ya.

All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, St.Petersburg-Pushkin, 196608Russia



The Afrotropical species of Dolichopodinae are poorly known and have not previously been revised. The last catalogue of Afrotropical Dolichopodinae (Dyte and Smith, 1980) listed 101 species belonging to 9 genera. The author  has recently revised the subfamily (Grichanov, in press). He has described 86 new species from the Afrotropical Region, placing in synonymy 18 known names. Two generic names have been also synonymized. Holotypes of 38 and paratypes of 6 more old species have been examined. A record of an undescribed species of the genus Hypophyllus from "Southern Arabia" by Dyte and Smith (1980) belongs probably to Hercostomus scotti Grichanov. All catalogued species of the genus Dolichopus are excluded here from the genus or from the fauna of Afrotropics, although several more species of the genus and one species of Ludovicius are recorded for the region. A revised catalogue and keys to all Afrotropical dolichopodine species are also prepared.Now 8 genera and 163 Afrotropical species of Dolichopodinae are known from the Region. Paracleius Bigot (including Pelastoneurus Loew and Paraclius Coquillet) and Tachytrechus are almost cosmopolitan genera. Dolichopus and Hercostomus are mostly Holarctic genera, Polymedon is a Pantropical genus; Lichtwardtia is a Paleotropical genus, Argyrochlamys seems to be the same, associating with crabholes along the seacoasts of Indian Ocean and southern Atlantics. The numbers of Afrotropical species belonging to dolichopodine genera are as follows: Paracleius (73), Hercostomus (47), Tachytrechus (16), Lichtwardtia (16), Dolichopus (4), Argyrochlamys (3), Polymedon (3) and Ludovicius (1).The well-known fauna of Congo (Kinshasa) comprises 68 species; South Africa numbers 30, Tanzania 22, Kenya 18, Ivory Coast 18, Uganda 17, Cameroon 16, Nigeria 13, Malawi 9, Angola 8 and Namibia 7. Only 7 species were recorded from Madagascar, 3 from the Seychelles and 2 from Mauritius. The most interesting distribution patterns of species are as follows: Argyrochlamys impudicus Lamb - Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Chagos Archipelago; Dolichopus festivus Haliday - Europe, Ivory Coast; D. flavocrinitus Becker - Egypt, Turkmenistan, Senegal; D.sabinus Haliday - Europe, Tanzania. Paracleius emasculatus Parent - Congo (Kinshasa), Ivory Coast, St. Helena; Tachytrechus tessellatus Macquart – Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde Is., Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo (Kinshasa), Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Aldabra, Ethiopia, South Africa, Swaziland, Malawi, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Socotra; Egypt, Israel; Oriental Region, New Caledonia.

Key words: Diptera, Dolichopodidae, Dolichopodinae, Tropical Africa.


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