Brachygasterina Macquart, 1851

Pérez, Sandra, Wolff, Marta & De, Claudio J. B., 2012, A new species of Brachygasterina Macquart from Colombia, and description of the males of B. stuebeli Röder and B. muisca Soares & Carvalho (Diptera: Muscidae), Zootaxa 3554, pp. 45-57 : 46

Genus Brachygasterina Macquart, 1851 .

Type species: Brachygasterina violaceiventris Macquart, 1851 .

Diagnosis (modified from Soares & de Carvalho 2007). General body color generally dark-brown with metallic blue, bluish-purple or greenish-blue. A few exceptions to this body color are found in B. fulvohumeralis (Malloch) and B. maculata Couri, Carvalho & Pont. In B. fulvohumeralis the humeral callus and anterior spiracle are yellowish and in B. maculata the segments of abdomen are yellow. Males are holoptic with short or long hairs on the eyes; postpedicel usually strongly dilated; arista almost bare; palpus dilated; dorsocentrals 2:4; meron and katepimeron bare; hind tibia with strong calcar; ovipositor long, tergites 6–7 anchor-shaped; sternites 6 and 7 divided.

Geographical records of previously known species are as follows: Brachygasterina andin a Carvalho & Pont: Colombia, Ecuador; B. bochica Soares & Carvalho : Colombia; B. fulvohumeralis Malloch : Chile; B. humboldti Soares & Carvalho : Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela; B. maculata Couri, Carvalho & Pont : Chile; B. major Malloch : Argentina, Chile; B. muisca Soares & Carvalho : Colombia; B. stuebeli (Röder) : Colombia, Ecuador; B. valdiviensis (Pamplona & Couri) : Chile; B. violaceiventris Macquart : Argentina, Chile.

Brachygasterina has been examined in recent literature, with a comprehensive redescription of the genus, descriptions of species and a key to the species (de Carvalho & Pont 2006, Couri et al. 2007, Soares & de Carvalho 2007). The genus was recently included in a cladistic analysis of Reinwardtiinae (sensu Couri & de Carvalho 2003), within the doctoral thesis of Elaine D.G. Soares. As understood in the present paper, Brachygasterina is not a monophyletic group and the cladistic analysis of Soares (2008) suggests a new taxonomic arrangement along with the other Andean genera Correntosia Malloch, Dalcyella Carvalho , Palpibracus Rondani and Psilochaeta Stein. Today , Brachygasterina comprises 11 species (including the new species described herein), six of which are found at higher altitudes in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.