Myanmyia
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Ordo: Diptera
Name
Myanmyia Grimaldi gen. n. – Wikispecies link – ZooBank link – Pensoft Profile
Diagnosis
Distinctive small flies (body length less than 1.5 mm) with antennal stylus arista-like and terminal, having a single article; face without ptilinal suture; median margins of eyes very close on frons; maxillary palpus two-segmented; mesonotum with dorsocentral and scutellar setae; wing venation highly reduced, with R2+3 and R4+5 each unbranched, M unbranched and evanescent at both ends, Cu simple; female with pair of long, digitate, unsegmented cerci.
Etymology
From Myanmar, country of origin, and –myia, a common suffix referring to the feminine Greek word for fly.
Type Species
Myanmyia asteiformia sp. n. By present designation.
Discussion
This is a perplexing little fly. Chaetotaxy of the thorax, the wing venation, and even body shape are strikingly similar to acalyptrate flies in the Asteiidae. Convergent wing features of the two groups include short R1 and R2+3 veins; a straight R4+5 that meets the tip of the wing, and even microtrichia that are arranged in rows. However, Myanmyia is not even a cyclorrhaphan, by virtue of the terminal (versus dorsal) arista-like stylus, lack of a ptilinum, and presence of two-segmented (vs. 1-segmented) palpi. With the exception of a few very basal Recent and extinct Platypezidae, almost all other Cyclorrhapha have a dorsal arista. Two-segmented palpi exclude Myanmyia from the Eremoneura (the apparent basal segment of the two segmented palpi seen in some Phoridae is probably a palpifer [Cumming and Wood 2009[1]]). While some empidoids (e.g., Cretaceous Nemedina genus-group species [Grimaldi and Cumming 1999[2]]) have short R veins and faint M and Cu veins, the branching pattern for these flies differs significantly at the base from that of Myanmyia.
Original Description
- Grimaldi, D; Arillo, A; Cumming, J; Hauser, M; 2011: Brachyceran Diptera (Insecta) in Cretaceous ambers, Part IV, Significant New Orthorrhaphous Taxa ZooKeys, 148: 293-332. doi
Other References
- ↑ Cumming J, Wood D (2009) Adult morphology and terminology. In: Brown BV et al. (Eds) Manual of Central American Diptera, vol. 1.Ottawa: NRC Research Press, 9–50.
- ↑ Grimaldi D, Cumming J (1999) Brachyceran Diptera in Cretaceous ambers and Mesozoic diversification of the Eremoneura. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 239: 1-124.
