Genus Sycorax Haliday

Sycorax Haliday in Curtis, 1839: 745 . Type species, Sycorax silacea Haliday in Curtis, 1839 (mon.).

Microdixa Müller, 1927: 535 . Type species, Microdixa scutigera Müller, 1927 (orig. des.).

Comm.: One fossil and 18 extant species of this genus (Petrulevičius et al. 2011, Santos et al. 2011, Curler & Jacobson 2012, Santos et al. 2013a) have been recorded from the Neotropics, one of which, Sycorax wampukrum Bravo & Salazar- Valenzuela, 2009, feeds on the blood of harlequin frogs (Bravo & Salazar-Valenzuela 2009). Two taxonomic proposals have been put forward for these species, that of three genera proposed by Duckhouse (1972) and the monogeneric of Ježek (1999); we prefer to follow the latter in the absence of molecular phylogenetic studies which would permit its generic status to be resolved. Keys for the species of the Neotropical region are found in Bravo et al. (2010b) and Santos et al. (2013a). Five Sycorax species have been described to date in Colombia.