Three new species of the subgenus Metaforcipomyia of Forcipomyia from Patagonia (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

MARINO, PABLO I.; SPINELLI, GUSTAVO R.

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; V Congreso Argentino de Entomología; 2002

Sociedad Entomológica Argentina

Forcipomyia Meigen is a large and extremely diverse genus of Ceratopogonidae, worldwide in distribution and diverse in morphology and hábitat preference, including many species which are important pollinators of cocoa in tropical áreas. The subgenus Metaforcipomyia Saunders includes 15 species. Fourteen of them are distributed in gondwanian áreas and the remaining one, Forcipomyia (M. ) pluvialis Malloch, is recorded from Eastern North America. Only three species are known to occur in the Neotropical región: F. (M.) cerífera Saunders from Argentina and Brazil, F. (M.) galliarii Marino & Spinelli, and F. (M.) williamsi M. & S, both from northeastern Argentina. Based on the examination of the type (deposited in the Natural History Museum in London) the patagonian spotted wing species F. maculosa Ingram & Macfie, is  herein recognized as a member of the subgenus Metaforcipomyia, and notes on its type are provided. Three new unnamed species of the subgenus from Patagonia are also described and illustrated, based on material deposited in the collection of the Museo de La Plata, Argentina (MLPA).