Herina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830

Morgulis, E., Freidberg, A. & Kameneva, E. P., 2013, Two new species of Herina (Diptera: Ulidiidae) from the Mediterranean region, with key to species groups, Zootaxa 3686 (4), pp. 461-470 : 462-463

Herina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830

Herina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830: 724 . Type species: Herina liturata Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 , by subsequent designation of Hennig (1939) (syn. of Herina nigrina (Meigen, 1826) .

Diagnosis. Small to medium-sized otitine flies (wing length 2–5 mm), usually with dark brown, subshining, rarely microtrichose, body; wing with very short or no posteroapical lobe of cell bcu and pattern of 3–4 dark spots or crossbands, rarely almost entirely brown or hyaline. Male terminalia usually without epiphallus (except in H. frondescentiae Linnaeus ).

Redescription. Head: Frons longer than wide. First flagellomere often pointed apically, usually 1.4–1.5 times as long as wide, rarely (in H. paludum Fallén and H. palustris Meigen ) 3–4 times as long as wide. Gena 0.33 times or less as high as eye. Orbit and parafacial silvery-gray to silvery-white microtrichose.

Thorax: Chaetotaxy: 0–1 acrostichal, 1–2 dorsocentral setae, posterior dorsocentral seta usually shorter and thinner than anterior dorsocentral seta or lacking, 1–2 supra-alar, 1 postalar, 1 intra-alar, 0–1 postpronotal, 1 proepisternal, 2–4 anepisternal, 2 notopleural and 1 katepisternal setae present. Scutellum with 2 pairs of setae.

Wing: Usually spotted, rarely banded, brown or entirely hyaline. Veins R4+5 and M parallel or slightly convergent; cell bcu with at most minute posteroapical lobe (vein Cu2 convex or slightly bent).

Abdomen: Tergites entirely subshining or sometimes with gray crossbands, female sternites 4–6 with anteromedial apodemes.

Male terminalia: Epiphallus and sensillar fields lateral of basiphallus usually absent; gonites large, symmetric, with 3–5 setulae. Phallus long, in some portions with acanthi (modified microsetae), in others bare; acanthi of various length and shape, often lanceolate, parallelogram or hook-like. Medial and lateral surstyli of various shapes. Simple surstyli—with medial surstylus slightly convex and bearing 2–3 prensisetae and 4–5 setulae, and with lateral surstylus narrow, straight or mesoventrally curved (in H. oscillans (Meigen) , H. parva (Loew) and H. pseudoluctuosa Hennig ). Highly modified surstyli—with bifurcate or lobate medial surstylus with one of the two prensisetae on mesal surface of lateral sursylus ( lugubris group of species) or with multiple (5–8) prensisetae (in H. frondescentiae (Loew) and H. odnosumi Kameneva & Pljushtch ).

Female terminalia: Oviscape shining; aculeus varies from short and wide to moderately long, 1.8–5.5 times as long as wide, with oval or round cercal unit; 3 round, oval or bacilliform spermathecae present.

Systematic relationships. Herina belongs to the tribe Otitini of the subfamily Otitinae ( Kameneva & Korneyev 2006). It is apparently a non-monophyletic group (Kameneva, unpublished data). Herina can be defined as an aggregation of smaller, mostly black species with various types of wing pattern, very short-lobate or nonlobate cell bcu, moderately narrow frons, parafacial and gena; male terminalia with 2–8 prensisetae on both of the surstyli combined, usually no epiphallus (present in H. frondescentiae and H. oscillans — Kameneva, unpublished data), and usually lacking sensillar fields on the hypandrium lateral to basiphallus (present in H. oscillans — Kameneva, unpublished data).

Species of Ceroxys also have subshining or shining abdomen and pointed 1st flagellomere. They can be distinguished from species of Herina by their larger size (wing length = 5.5–7.5 mm) and slightly convergent veins R4+5 and M. Some smaller black species of Otites (e.g., O. rivularis (Loew)) and Ulidiopsis ( U. mirabilis Hennig ) differ in having moderately high gena (0.35–0.45 as high as eye), medial surstylus with 7–30 prensisetae, well developed paired epiphallus and presence of the sensillar fields lateral to basiphallus. As a result of this confusion, females sometimes cannot be placed to genus with certainty.

Species groups: Along with the lugubris group of species, defined and revised by Merz (2002), several additional groups of species can be recognized as is defined in the following key. However, nine species could not be placed into any of these groups.