Paranomina Hendel, 1907

Mcalpine, David K., 2019, Review of the Species of Paranomina (Diptera: Lauxaniidae), Records of the Australian Museum 71 (3), pp. 71-85 : 72

Genus Paranomina Hendel

Paranomina Hendel, 1907: 231 ; 1908: 58–59 (more detailed description). Stuckenberg, 1971: 544, 546.

Type species (original designation): Paranomina unicolor Hendel.

The genus is distinguished from other Australasian genera of Lauxaniidae by the following combination of characters: costa with series of short, stout black spinules, becoming distally replaced by finer spinules or hairs well before end of vein 3 (or R 4+5), in contrast to Homoneura van der Wulp etc.; vein 2 on most of its length not closely approximated to costa, in contrast to Depressa Malloch spp. and Steganopsis de Meijere spp.; presutural (or posthumeral) bristle of thorax absent, in contrast to condition in Trigonometopsis Malloch spp. etc.; anterior one, of two pairs of fronto-orbital bristles, strongly incurved and not reclinate.

Additional significant features of Paranomina include the following:

Head: eye rounded in profile, not higher than long; postfrons anteriorly with few inconspicuous setulae which are not distinctly proclinate; fronto-orbital plates not sharply distinct in colour or texture, but sometimes with imperfect indication of colour differentiation; face almost flat, receding ventrally in profile; its surface almost evenly pruinescent (microtrichose); cheek region with a series of large posteroventral bristles, much diminishing in size anteriorly; prelabrum (sensu Hendel, or anteclypeus sensu Crampton, 1942; “clypeus” as error in homology of some modern authors, see McAlpine, 2007) very narrowly transverse; palpus rather small and slender, setulose; proboscis rather short, with broad labella; antenna approximately porrect, with segments 1 and 2 short but prominent, segment 3 bilaterally compressed, ovate, less than twice as long as deep; arista with segment 4 very short, segment 5 subcylindrical, less than twice as long as its greatest diameter, segment 6 filiform, with short moderately dense black pubescence (erroneously stated to be bare by Hendel and by Stuckenberg).

Thorax slightly elongate, not strongly convex in dorsal profile; dorsocentral bristles usually 0+3 (1+ 3 in one species); usually one pair of acrostichal bristles and two or four longitudinal series of small acrostichal setulae; scutellum with two pairs of bristles and no setulae; humeral, propleural (proepisternal), and mesopleural (anepisternal) bristles one each; postsutural intra-alar bristle absent, in contrast to Minettia Robineau-Desvoidy ; sternopleural bristles usually two, of unequal size; pteropleuron bare; prosternum broad, bare, without precoxal bridge. Fore femur with several large posterodorsal and posteroventral bristles; each tibia with one preapical dorsal bristle; fore tibia with variably developed ventral subapical bristle; hind tibia with one very short apical anteroventral spur and several smaller terminal ventral setulae. Wing generally typical of family, moderately elongate, hyaline, without darker markings.

Preabdomen without distinctive features; female postabdomen with tergites and sternites separate and relatively short; male postabdomen approximately symmetrical, its apparent surstyli completely fused to epandrium (surstylar lobes of Papp, 2007).

Examples of Paranomina can be generically identified by use of the key to the Old World lauxaniid genera given by Stuckenberg (1971), but not by Malloch’s key to the Australian genera of “ Sapromyzidae ” (1927: 400), which requires the correction added by Malloch (1928:30). Two undescribed lauxaniid species from South Australia (in AM collection) somewhat resemble Paranomina , but have a large presutural bristle and the eye is slightly higher than long. The generic position of these species will need to be determined when there is better study material available.

Monophyly of the genus Paranomina is supported by the absence of the presutural bristle and the strong incurvature of the anterior fronto-orbital bristle, both apparently somewhat unusual (but not unique) apomorphic conditions within the Lauxaniidae ; together with detailed agreement in most other features of external morphology. The association of the species with plants of the endemic Australian genus Xanthorrhoea seems to add further evidence of close relationship among the species, though this probably does not apply to P. longa , a species which is also slightly morphologically atypical.