Sciarid flies from Dominican Amber (Diptera, Sciaridae).

Abstract

Results from this investigation describe 20 new fossil species from Dominican amber and one new genus with fossil and one recent species from Africa. The species belong to the following 8 genera: Trichosia (subgenus Mouffetina [1]); Leptosciarella (subgenus Leptosciarella [1]), Cratyna (subgenus Cratyna [1]), Cratyna unplaced [2], Archicratyna gen. nov. [4], Chaetosciara [1], Bradysiopsis [1], Bradysia [3], Corynoptera [3] and Epidapus [4]. - None of the species identified within the Dominican amber are identical with those from the Baltic and Saxonian (Bitterfeld) amber, however there are several identical genera such as Trichosia, Leptosciarella, Cratyna, Corynoptera and Epidapus. All species from the Dominican amber belong to recent genera or subgenera, whereas many species from the Baltic and Saxonian amber belong to extinct genera or subgenera. Furthermore, the species from the Dominican amber possess more modern features than those from the European amber. Surprisingly, the fossil sciarid fauna from the Dominican amber shows more similarities to the recent fauna of the Holarctic region than to the recent fauna of Central and South America.

Keywords

Sciaridae, Dominican Amber.

Nomenclatural Acts

arcana Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Archicratyna), spec. n.
subarcana Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Archicratyna), spec. n.
trichoarcana Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Archicratyna), spec. n.
zimbabweensis Mohrig, 2005 (Archicratyna), spec. n.
antiqua Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Bradysia), spec. n.
dimidiata Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Bradysia), spec. n.
exoleta Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Bradysia), spec. n.
repentina Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Bradysiopsis), spec. n.
obsoleta Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Chaetosciara), spec. n.
iocosa Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Corynoptera), spec. n.
prisca Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Corynoptera), spec. n.
pristina Röschmann & Mohrig, 2005 (Corynoptera), spec. n.
interposita Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Cratyna), spec. n.
villosoantennata Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Cratyna), spec. n.
tempestiva Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Cratyna (Cratyna)), spec. n.
adstrictosetus Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Epidapus), spec. n.
longisetus Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Epidapus), spec. n.
macrospinatus Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Epidapus), spec. n.
microspinus Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Epidapus), spec. n.
manifesta Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Leptosciarella (Leptosciarella)), spec. n.
Archicratyna Mohrig, 2005 (Sciaridae), gen. n.
nova Mohrig & Röschmann, 2005 (Trichosia (Moufettina)), spec. n.