Paraclius Loew

Capellari, Renato Soares & Amorim, Dalton De Souza, 2009, Four new species of Paraclius Loew (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and notes on the systematic position of Cheiromyia Dyte, Zootaxa 2274, pp. 51-61 : 52

Paraclius Loew

Paraclius Loew, 1864: 97 . Type species: Pelastoneurus arcuatus Loew 1864: 101 (subsequent designation by Coquillett 1910: 583).

Leptocorypha Aldrich, 1896: 315 . Type species: L. pavo Aldrich 1896: 316 (monotypy) (synonymized by Robinson 1970).

Recognition (based on Brooks 2005). Stylus bare to strongly pubescent, not plumose; clypeus flat or weakly pronounced, distinctly shorter than face in males, not exceeding lower margin of eyes; wing vein M bent beyond crossvein m-cu; mid and hind femora usually with one preapical seta.

Comments. Brooks (2005) already suggested that Paraclius is a “polyphyletic assemblage of species”, so a strict diagnosis for the genus cannot be presented at this time and has to await a revision and redefinition of the genus. The recognition of the genus presented here is a reduction of that proposed by Brooks (2005). The general morphology of all four species described here is considerably very similar, so P. amphiatheratus , sp. nov. is described in detail and only differential features of the other three species are provided. These new species do not fit the description of any of the previously described Neotropical Paraclius . Three females collected in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, could not be associated to males and are informally described as “ Paraclius sp.” below.