ZODIONINAE RONDANI, 1856

Gibson, Joel F. & Skevington, Jeffrey H., 2013, Phylogeny and taxonomic revision of all genera of Conopidae (Diptera) based on morphological data, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 167 (1), pp. 43-81 : 68-69

ZODIONINAE RONDANI, 1856

Type genus Zodion Latreille, 1797: 162 . Included genera: Parazodion Kröber, 1927: 135 , Robertsonomyia Malloch, 1919: 205 , Zodiomyia Camras, 1957b: 163 , Zodion . Uncontroverted morphological autapomorphy: basisternum reduced to a narrow sclerite divided posteriorly (47).

Gibson et al. (2012) recover Zodioninae as monophyletic with the same set of apomorphic character states, but include only representatives of Zodion and Parazodion . They add the following additional apomorphic character states for those taxa: a developed, fleshy hypoproct in the male; a leaf-shaped phallus with a single, central, sclerotized rod; and two, separate, anterior arms on the hypandrium.

Rondani (1856) originally describes Zodionina, including only Zodion , based on the presence of a dorsal arista, an elongate prementum, and reduced labellum. Zimina (1960) redefines the tribe Zodionini , within Myopinae and containing only Zodion , with the following key characteristics: labella not elongate; crossvein sc-r present; vein R 4+5 + M usually petiolate. Each of these characters are plesiomorphic, either to Conopidae or to Conopinae + Zodioninae .

Robertsonomyia and Zodion have been placed within Myopinae in most previous classifications. Members of Zodioninae can be distinguished from Myopinae by the short, broad labella, the shape of the basisternum, the presence of shiny patches near the apex of the tibia, the extended vein R 1, the unfused veins Sc and R 1, the presence of crossvein sc-r, the ending of vein R 2+3 near the end of vein R 1, the curved vein CuA 2, and the male cerci attached by a narrow, sclerotized stalk.

Species examined – Parazodion schmidti ; Parazodion sp. ; Robertsonomyia mexicana ; Robertsonomyia palpalis ; Robertsonomyia parva ; Robertsonomyia pearsoni ; Zodiomyia sumbaensis ; Zodion cinereum ; Zodion erythrurum ; Zodion fulvifrons ; Zodion griseum ; Zodion intermedium ; Zodion pictum ; Zodion pruinosum comb. nov. ( Neozodion ).