A revision of Australopapuan and New Caledonian Brunettia (Diptera, Psychodidae)

Abstract

Brunettia Annandale (sensu Duckhouse 1966) has previously been known in Australopapua from thirty-three species, comprising twenty-eight from Papua-New Guinea, but only five from Australia, all in the southern states. This anomaly is now removed with the description of seventeen new species from Queensland and the Northern Territory, showing that the major evolutionary centre extends from Papua-New Guinea far into northern Australia, and that the southern species are not in reality separated by a disjunction. Three new species are also described from southern Australia, two from New Guinea, and two from New Caledonia (the first from this island). The phylogenetic importance of Brunettia is especially due to the inclusion in it of taxa that are cladistically basal and annectant, nearly all Australopapuan.

The mix of tribal, generic, subgeneric and species characters found in earlier descriptions is ordered into a strict hierarchical sequence, and Brunettia is divided into seven subgenera — Brunettia, s. str., Plesiobrunettia, subg. nov., Atrichobrunettia Satchell, Maurobrunettia, subg. nov., Campanulobrunettia, subg. nov., Horobrunettia, subg. nov., and Mrrousiella Vaillant, stat. nov., this last resurrected from synonymy with Atrichobrunettia. Of these, Maurobrunettia occurs in northern Australia, Plesiobrunettia is New Guinean, Campanulobrunettia and Atrrchobrunettia are Australopapuan, and Horobrunettia is mainly Australopapuan but has one species in the Philippines. Brunettia s. str. is more widely distributed, but extensively diversified in Papua-New Guinea, and Mirousiella is European. The ten Papua-New Guinean species placed by Quate & Quate (1967) in Atrichobrunettia are transferred into the various subgenera of Brunettia (combs. nov.), and their Brunettia species are also assorted into these subgenera. New keys are provided covering all Australopapuan Brunettia species.

The genealogical status of Mormiini and Maruinini are discussed. It is concluded that because Mormiini are an offshoot of the Maruinini, the Maruinini are paraphyletic, but that this defect cannot be overcome until more is known of maruinine phylogeny.