New Australian stiletto flies: revision of Manestella Metz and description of Medomega gen. n. (Diptera, Therevidae, Agapophytinae)

Zookeys. 2012:(240):1-119. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.240.2967. Epub 2012 Nov 9.

Abstract

The previously monotypic genus Manestella Metz, 2003 is revised with a single species, Manestella tristriata (Mann, 1933), redescribed and an additional 14 new species described: Manestella caesiasp. n., Manestella campestrissp. n., Manestella canitiessp. n., Manestella cooloolasp. n., Manestella fumosasp. n., Manestella incompletasp. n., Manestella nubissp. n., Manestella obscurasp. n., Manestella ocellarissp. n., Manestella personasp. n., Manestella poecilothoraxsp. n., Manestella umbrapennissp. n., Manestella vastasp. n. and Manestella vesperasp. n. The putative sister genus to Manestella, Medomegagen. n., is described containing six new species: Medomega averyisp. n., Medomega bailmeupsp. n., Medomega chlamydossp. n., Medomega danielsisp. n., Medomega gigasathesp. n., and Medomega nebriassp. n. Complete taxonomic descriptions were generated from a character matrix developed in Lucid Builder from which natural language descriptions (NLD) were parsed. Images of all species of Manestella and Medomegagen. n. are included, along with dichotomous keys to species.

Keywords: Asiloidea; Lucid Builder; cybertaxonomy; natural language description.