Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyDiscovery of new species of Pelidnoptera Rondani andrelated new genus from Asia and their implications to thebasal lineage of Sciomyzidae.Sueyoshi, M. (1), L. Knutson (2) & K. Ghorpadé (3)(1) Forest Zoology Group, Kyushu Research Center, Forestry and Forest ProductsResearch Institute, Kumamoto 860-0862, Japan(2) 04024 Gaeta (LT), Italy(3) Department of Agricultural Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences,Dharwar 580 005, IndiaWith the recent discoveries of unusual feeding behavior in sciomyzid flies,it has become necessary to reconstruct their phylogenetic and taxonomicrelationships. Such information is needed for further understanding of theevolutionary scenarios of sciomyzoid parasitoids and predators ofgastropods, finger-nail clams, millipedes, and oligochaetes. The genusPelidnoptera Rondani, 1856, includes a millipede-killing species, P.nigripennis (Fabricius), among the three known species from the westernPalaearctic sub-region. It was hitherto considered that predation onmillipedes, together with a few diagnostic adult and larval morphologicalcharacters, supported the placement of this sole genus in the familyPhaeomyiidae. However, information on the phylogeny of the superfamilySciomyzoidea is limited and most past studies have not focused ondeveloping evolutionary scenarios for sciomyzoid parasitoids and predators.Moreover, autapomorphies and the systematic position of Pelidnopterahave not been tested. In this paper, we tested the monophylies ofPelidnoptera and the family Sciomyzidae (including the subfamiliesHuttonininae and Sciomyzinae, and Salticella Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830, ofSalticellinae), and sister-group relationships between Pelidnoptera andother sciomyzid genera, using adult morphological characters from fossiland living species of Sciomyzoidea, using a cladistic method. We alsodiscussed the significance of using Pelidnoptera species to gain anunderstanding of the evolution of the Sciomyzidae. During our study ofPelidnoptera and while searching for out-group taxa for a cladistic analysis,two new genera and species of Sciomyzidae and a single new species of242