Niphanohelea

Borkent, Art, 2024, The Phylogeny of the Genera of Biting Midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of the World, Zootaxa 5438 (1), pp. 1-274 : 236

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5438.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:2CD64E2C-D575-463F-A8F4-390662DDC9E2

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/5875621C-FF40-29A3-FF3F-B4B7FD7A7368

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Niphanohelea
status

 

Niphanohelea View in CoL :

- Female with hind tarsomere 5 swollen. This feature is unique in the Culicomorpha. The male of this monotypic genus is unknown and it is therefore uncertain if it is true of both sexes. This autapomorphy was originally proposed by Grogan & Wirth (1981a).

- Female wing strongly modified ( Figs. 78D–E View FIGURE 78 ). This autapomorphy was originally described by Grogan & Wirth (1981a) as “great displacement of vein R 4+5, its apical fusion with M 1, and the absence of the r-m crossvein”. They consider a vein arising near the apex of M 1 to be adventitious. As illustrated in Borkent (2004), I consider it more likely r-m has been retained but moved from a near midlength position to near the apex of the wing ( Figs. 78A–D View FIGURE 78 ). As such I interpret the veins with any loss or addition as follows: their M 1 distal to the base of the adventitious vein is actually r-m and their adventitious vein is the apical portion of M 1. The thinner, apical portion of M 1 as identified here is of similar thickness to M 2 ( Fig. 78E View FIGURE 78 ), supporting the idea that M 1 is not an “adventitious” vein. In Ceratopogonidae , M 1 and M 2 are both significantly thinner than R 3 ( Figs. 45A–J View FIGURE 45 ). As such, the basal portion of M 1 being as thick as R 3 is also unique in the family. The R 4+5 identified by Grogan & Wirth (1981a) is more recently understood to actually be R 3 ( Szadziewski 1996). The wing is discussed further under “Previous Phylogenetic Analyses”.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Ceratopogonidae

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