Ulidia

Abstract: Five Chinese species of Ulidia Meigen, 1826 are reviewed, U. gongjuensis Chen sp. nov., U. kandybinae Zaitzev, U. xizangensis Chen, sp. nov., U. sp. cf. erythrophthalma Meigen, and U. sp. near melampodia Loew, 1873, of which two are newly described. A key to 8 species occurring in China and bordering countries (Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan) is provided.

Abstract: The picture-winged fly tribe Ulidiini includes about 90 species of the genera Physiphora Falle n, 1810 (most diverse in the Afrotropical Region), Timia Wiedemann, 1824 (occurring predominantly in the Middle East and Central Asia) and Ulidia Meigen, 1826. The latter genus includes 18 described species, distributed mainly in semi-arid areas from the Mediterranean in the West to China (Inner Mongolia and Tibet) in the East (Kameneva, 2008; Chen, Kameneva, 2009). Species of Ulidia are common in late spring and early summer in grasslands, often feeding on dung and flowers and gathering on stones and bare soil, as well as on a sweaty cloth left lying on grass, possibly using such places for pre-connubial associations; they somewhat resemble certain small muscid and flesh flies in their behaviour (Kameneva, personal observations). European Ulidia species were recently revised and keyed (Kameneva, 2008), but several undescribed species of Ulidia from the Middle East are recognized in collections (Kameneva, 2002), most of which are to be the subject of a forthcoming revision of Asian Ulidia (Kameneva, in prep.). A very peculiar species collected in Middle Asia by Miroslav Barta k in 1989 and by the author in 1998, however, deserves special attention. This aberrant species only partly fits the polythetic diagnoses currently used to separate closely related Ulidia and Timia (see Chen, Kameneva, 2009) and shows that there is a need for detailed revision of phylogenetic relationships among species inside and between these genera based on detailed morphological and molecular studies. The new species shares a shining, non-microtrichose thorax and wide parafacials with other species of Ulidia, but differs from most of them (except U. facialis Hendel, 1931 and U. kandybinae Zaitzev, 1982) by its smooth frons without pits or dots at the bases of setulae, and I therefore provisionally place it here in the genus Ulidia along with those 2 species.

Abstract: The genus Ulidia Meigen, 1826 includes 19 described species distributed mainly in semiarid areas from the Mediterranean in the West to China (Inner Mongolia and Tibet) in the East (Zaitzev, 1984; Kameneva, 2008, 2010; Chen & Kameneva, 2009). Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish Timia Wiedemann, 1824 from Ulidia. The main diagnostic characters used so far are mainly as follows: the frons smooth (in Timia) or dimpled (in Ulidia) (with some exceptions in both genera), head and thorax microtrichose (in Timia) or bare (in Ulidia; some species assigned to Timia have shiny head and thorax, and Ulidia metope Kameneva, 2010 has frons widely microtrichose) (Chen & Kameneva, 2009; Kameneva, 2010). During the study of Ulidiidae in the collection of the Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University (ZMUM), the author recognized several specimens belonging to the new species described below. The new species is similar to Ulidia nigricubitalis Zaitzev, 1982, which was described from a single male collected in Mongolia (Zaitzev, 1982). The holotype of U. nigricubitalis was re-examined and illustrated.

Abstract: The Ulidiini (Ulidiidae: Ulidiinae) fauna of Israel is reviewed. Eighteen species in three genera (Physiphora, Timia and Ulidia) are recognized. Five species are described as new: Timia fallax n. sp., T. ritae n. sp., Ulidia aurata n. sp., U. hirsuta n. sp. and U. wasimi n. sp. The remaining species are redescribed and all species are illustrated. Keys for the identification of the local Physiphora and Timia species and of the world species of Ulidia are provided.