APYSTOMYIIDAE

Grimaldi, David A., 2016, Diverse Orthorrhaphan Flies (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera) In Amber From The Cretaceous Of Myanmar: Brachycera In Cretaceous Amber, Part Vii David A. Grimaldi, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2016 (408), pp. 1-132 : 90

FAMILY APYSTOMYIIDAE

The dipterist Mario Bezzi (1868–1927) is said to have called Sciadocera rufomaculata White “the most wonderful fly in the world” ( Oldroyd, 1964: 167), because it is an amalgam of characters from various groups of Eremoneura. Actually, the species is well established as a close relative to the rest of the Phoridae . Title to “the most wonderful fly” could be owned by Apystomyia elinguis Melander , for its highly relict nature (the only surviving species of the family, restricted to a few localities in California), and for its phylogenetic position as sister group to either the Cyclorrhapha ( Trautwein et al., 2010; Wiegmann et al., 2011), or to the Eremoneura (Empidoidea + Cyclorrhapha) ( Sinclair et al., 2013). The extraordinarily relict nature of this fly is further revealed by Late Mesozoic relatives Hilarimorphites (in New Jersey and Burmese amber [ Grimaldi and Cumming, 1999; Grimaldi et al., 2011; herein]) and Apystomimus zaitzevi Mostovski (preserved as lithified remains from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhstan). Morphologically, the grouping of the fossils into Apystomyiidae appears certain, so clearly the family was widespread at least in the Late Mesozoic. It is very interesting that Hilarimorphites have not yet been found in Canadian, French, Lebanese, or Spanish Cretaceous ambers. The absence of apystomyiid fossils from the Cenozoic may reflect that by the Eocene they were already highly restricted or quite rare.

Genus Hilarimorphites Grimaldi and Cumming

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS: Small, dark flies known thus far only in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey and Myanmar; antennal flagellum 2- (New Jersey amber species) or 3-segmented (Burmese amber), apical flagellar article or two stylate; male nearly holoptic; dorsocentral and scutellar macrosetae present, sometimes acrostichals; tibial spurs absent, empodium setiform; metacoxal peg present; R 4 -R 5 fork short, cell d present, M 1 -M 2 forked, M 3 absent; cell cup closed or nearly so. Female cercus 1-segmented; male body very setose, with enlarged anal lobe and alula.

TYPE SPECIES: Hilarimorphites yeatsi Grimaldi and Cumming , in New Jersey amber.

COMMENTS: Species in the genus are the following: in New Jersey amber: Hilarimorphites superba Grimaldi and Cumming , H. yeatsi Grimaldi and Cumming , H. setosa Grimaldi and Cumming , and H. longimedia Grimaldi and Cumming ; in Burmese amber: H. burmanica Grimaldi and Cumming , and the distinctive new species described below.