Cretaceous Diversity of the Relict Genus Alavesia Waters and Arillo (Diptera: Empidoidea: Atelestidae)

Abstract

Alavesia has been known on the basis of five species in Late Cretaceous amber from Spain and Myanmar and two extant species from Namibia. Very recently, another extant species has been found in southern Brazil. Here we present a surprising diversity of Alavesia flies from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar (Late Albian-Early Cenomanian, ca. 99 Ma), including nine new species: A. angusta, sp. nov., A. brevipennae, sp. nov., A. lanceolata, sp. nov., A. latala, sp. nov., A. longicornuta, sp. nov., A. magna, sp. nov., A. pankowskiorum, sp. nov., A. spinosa, sp. nov., and A. zigrasi, sp. nov. The following new synonymy is proposed: NeoalavesiaPoinar and Vega, 2020 = AlavesiaWaters and Arillo, 1999. Notes are provided on an unusual structure, leg furrows found on femora to varying degrees among species, sometimes on tibiae, as well as notes on swarming behavior. Alavesia has undergone extensive extinction, a finding that further supports the relict nature of this genus and helps to explain the distribution of the other four Recent genera of Atelestidae, found in south and north temperate regions. Relict arthropod taxa preserved in Burmese amber are briefly reviewed, which also are narrowly endemic to temperate regions today.