Revision of the Neotropical robber fly genus Cnodalomyia Hull (Diptera, Asilidae, Asilinae) with description of two new species from Brazil

Abstract

The genus Cnodalomyia includes only two Brazilian species: C. obtusa Hull, 1962 and C. catarinensis Lamas and Mellinger, 2008. Studying material deposited in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), the authors found a long series of unidentified specimens of the genus, some of which are specimens of C. obtusa labelled with the same data as the type series as well as other specimens from different localities, representing an enlargement of the known geographic records of the species. This material, together with the types of C. catarinensis, enables this revision. A redescription of the genus and of its type species, C. obtusa, including descriptions and illustrations of its spermathecae and egg, until now never described, the description and illustration of two new species (C. artigasi sp. nov. and C. papaveroi sp. nov.), the diagnosis and egg description of C. catarinensis and an identification key to all included species are presented herein.

Keywords:

• Asilidae
• Cnodalomyia
• Atlantic Forest
• biodiversity
• new species
• taxonomy
• Neotropical

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Dalton Amorim (FFCLRP-USP, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil) for the photos and also the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the grant to CJEL (Proc. No. 481024/2008-5).