Sciaroidea incertae sedis: Sciarosoma Chandler, 2002

Kai Heller

Arthur-Zabel-Weg 25, D-24226 Heikendorf, Germany; kaiheller@gmx.de

The monotypic genus Sciarosoma Chandler, 2002 was only recently described. The general appearance of the adults is very similar to Sciaridae, but the eyes are not connected, the maxillary palps are 5-segmented and the structure of the male genitalia is different. The larval morphology and biology is unknown. Sciarosoma had been assigned to the family Sciaridae comprising the subfamily Sciarosominae (Hippa & Vilkamaa 2005), but this opinion was not supported consequently by other workers on this group (Jaschhof et. al. 2005) in their extensive description and discussion of this genus. As the systematics of the basal groups of Sciaroidea is still unclear and a matter for dispute, the genus remains here unassigned to any family of Sciaroidea as it was done in the Fauna Europaea (Chandler 2004). Two paratypes of the only known species Sciarosoma borealis Chandler, 2002 were recorded from Bohemia (Chandler 2002). There are still no known records from Moravia and Slovakia, but its presence there is probable.

References

[1] Chandler P. 2002: Heterotricha Loew and allied genera (Diptera: Sciaroidea): offshoots of the stem group of Mycetophilidae and/or Sciaridae? Annales de la  Société entomologique de France (n. s.) 38: 101-144.

[2] Chandler P. 2004: Fauna Europea: Diadocidiidae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europea: Diptera, Nematocera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[3] Hippa H. & Vilkamaa P. 2005: The Genus Sciarotricha gen. n. (Sciaridae) and the phylogeny of recent and fossil Sciaroidea (Diptera). Insect Systematics and Evolution 36: 121-143.

[4] Jaschhof M., Jaschhof C., Viklund B. & Kallweit U. 2006: On the morphology and systematic position of Sciarosoma borealis Chandler, based on new material from Fennoscandia (Diptera: Sciaroidea). Studia dipterologica 12 (2005): 231-241.