A new species of Parasycorax and new records of Sycorax (Diptera: Psychodidae, Sycoracinae) from southern Brazil.

Abstract

Sycoracinae is a subfamily of Psychodidae, currently with 45 extant species (Curler Jacobson 2012; Santos et al. 2013) classified in three genera: Sycorax Haliday in Curtis; Parasycorax Duckhouse and Aposycorax Duckhouse (Duckhouse 1972; Young 1979). Sycorax comprises a majority of this diversity with 40 extant species, 15 of which are recorded from the Neotropical region (Curler Jacobson 2012; Santos et al. 2013). Four fossil species of Sycorax have also been described (Curler Jacobson 2012), including one from middle Miocene Amazonian amber (Petrulevičius et al. 2011). In contrast, Parasycorax includes only four extant species; three from South America and one from the Philippines (Santos et al. 2009) and a fossil species from Cretaceous Burmese amber (Stebner et al. 2015). Here we describe a new species of Parasycorax and provide an updated key to males of all extant and fossil species of the genus. In addition, Sycorax bravoi Santos, Ferreira Falqueto and Sycorax espiritosantensis Santos Bravo are recorded for Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil.