Serromyia

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.

Abstract: Study of a collection of biting midges made by Stewart and Jarmila Peck in the Drakensberg Mountains, Natal, South Africa, yielded records of 42 species of Ceratopogonidae, of which the following 21 species are described as new: Forcipomyia aenigma , F . arcis , F . campanula , F . montana , F . stewarti , F . brunnea , Dasyhelea salta , D . falcata , Notoceratopogon minutus , N . vockerothi , Fanthamia aniculae , F . draconis , F . forsteri , F . montana , F . sani , Alluaudomyia rudolfi , Kolenohelea jarmilae , K . monticola , Serromyia silvatica , Stilobezzia fulva , and Palpomyia armigera . The genus Notoceratopogon with 4 species, all from southern Africa, is described as new with N . minutus n.sp. as the type species. A key is given for the separation of the 12 known species of Fanthamia , all from Subsaharan Africa.

Abstract: Study of a collection of Ceratopogonidae made in the Kruger National Park, Republic of South Africa, by the senior author and colleagues in 1979 yielded records of 47 species, exclusive of the genus Culicoides, of which 15 species in 12 genera are descriptionbed as new: Forcipomyia hastata, Atrichopogon falcis, Dasyhelea leporis, Brachypogon grobleri, B. hamiltoni, B. krugeri, Fanthamia mennoi, Kolenohelea mira, K. inusitata, Monohelea periucunda, Parabezzia obscura, Serromyia zuluensis, Stilobezzia crossi, Clinohelea insperata, and Dibezzia gideoni. Some additional material is reported from elsewhere in Subsaharan Africa, in large part taken in a light trap at Tzaneen, Transvaal. Forcipomyia (Thyridomyia) kabashae de Meillon is made a junior synonym of F. monilicornis (Coquillett) and a key is given to the Subsaharan species of the subgenus Thyridomyia.