Leptoconops

Abstract: The eggs and all four larval instars of Austroconops mcmillani Wirth and Lee and A. annettae Borkent, new species, are described. The pupa of A. mcmillani is also described. Life cycles and details of behavior of each life stage are reported, including feeding by the aquatic larvae on microscopic organisms in very wet soil/detritus, larval locomotion, female adult biting habits on humans and kangaroos, and male adult swarming. Austroconops annettae Borkent, new species, is attributed to the first author. Cladistic analysis shows that the two extant Austroconops Wirth and Lee species are sister species. Increasingly older fossil species of Austroconops represent increasingly earlier lineages. Among extant lineages, Austroconops is the sister group of Leptoconops Skuse, and together they form the sister group of all other Ceratopogonidae. Dasyhelea Kieffer is the sister group of Forcipomyia Meigen 1 Atrichopogon Kieffer, and together they form the sister group of the Ceratopogoninae. Forcipomyia has no synapomorphies and may be paraphyletic in relation to Atrichopogon. Austroconops is morphologically conservative (possesses many plesiomorphic features) in each life stage and this allows for interpretation of a number of features within Ceratopogonidae and other Culicomorpha. A new interpretation of Cretaceous fossil lineages shows that Austroconops, Leptoconops, Minyohelea Borkent, Jordanoconops

Abstract: Data are presented recording the presence of 49 species of bloodsucking cerato-pogonids in Trinidad, West Indies. Of these, 45 are Culicoides, one is a Leptoconops, and three belong to Forcipomyia (Lasiohelea). Five species are reported from Tobago: three Culicoides, one Leptoconops, and one Lasiohelea. The males of Culicoides benarrochi and C. fluviatilis are described for the first time, and the female of C. debilipalpis is redescribed. Culicoides filariferus and C. pseudodiabolicus are resurrected from synonymy, and characters are presented distinguishing them from C. diabolicus and C. guttatus. Biological data and keys to genera and species are included.

Abstract: India’s unique and highly diverse biota combined with its unique geodynamical history has generated significant interest in the patterns and processes that have shaped the current distribution of India’s flora and fauna and their biogeographical relationships. Fifty four million year old Cambay amber from northwestern India provides the opportunity to address questions relating to endemism and biogeographic history by studying fossil insects. Within the present study seven extant and three fossil genera of biting midges are recorded from Cambay amber and five new species are described: Eohelea indica Stebner & Szadziewski n. sp., Gedanohelea gerdesorum Stebner & Szadziewski n. sp., Meunierohelea cambayana Stebner & Szadziewski n. sp., Meunierohelea borkenti Stebner & Szadziewski n. sp., and Meunierohelea orientalis Stebner & Szadziewski n. sp. Fossils of species in the genera Leptoconops Skuse, 1889, Forcipomyia Meigen, 1818, Brachypogon Kieffer, 1899, Stilobezzia Kieffer, 1911, Serromyia Meigen, 1818, and Mantohelea Szadziewski, 1988 are recorded without formal description. Furthermore, one fossil belonging to the genus Camptopterohelea Wirth & Hubert, 1960 is included in the present study. Our study reveals faunal links among Ceratopogonidae from Cambay amber and contemporaneous amber from Fushun, China, Eocene Baltic amber from Europe, as well as the modern Australasian and the Oriental regions. These findings imply that faunal exchange between Europe, Asia and India took place before the formation of Cambay amber in the early Eocene.