Alloclusia
Owen Lonsdale and Steve Marshall
Introduction
Alloclusia Hendel is a relatively large (3.0-7.8 mm) yellow, bivittate genus, often with quite elaborately patterned wings and complex external male genitalia. Alloclusia and Apiochaeta Czerny are the only Clusiinae in South America, restricted to Chile and western Argentina. The only other Clusiidae in temperate South America are a few widespread species of the clusiodine genera Craspedochaeta Czerny and Heteromeringia Czerny.
Characteristics
Alloclusia, like Apiochaeta, can be diagnosed by three dorsocentral bristles, an inclinate anterior fronto-orbital bristle, black setulae on the frons, outstanding bristles on the posterodorsal surface of the fore femur, a dorsal preapical bristle on the mid tibia, an oblique vein dm-cu, a small ratio of the length of the ultimate section of vein M to the penultimate, an elongate curved distiphallus with one pair of lateral spinulose projections, and a ventral receptacle with numerous transverse wrinkles and two ventral longitudinal furrows (Lonsdale & Marshall in manuscript).
Alloclusia differs from Apiochaeta by having dorsocentrals of the same length, elongate lateral scutellar bristles (at least one pair), a posteroventrally produced gena, and an elongate sunken face. Some species of Alloclusia also have four pairs of fronto-orbitals, and many species have very elaborately patterned wings.
Figure: Alloclusia pictipennis (Wulp) male genitalia; hypandrial complex not to scale. © Owen Lonsdale.
Wings: Alloclusia philippi (Rondani); A. pictipennis (Wulp); A. chiloensis Malloch; A. limbipennis (Rondani); A. excepta Malloch; A. varia Malloch; A. costalis Malloch. © Owen Lonsdale.
Phylogenetics
Within the Clusiinae, Alloclusia and Apiochaeta make up a monophyletic group recognized on the basis of three pairs of well-developed dorsocentral bristles, an oblique vein dm-cu, a distiphallus with spinulose basolateral projections, and a ventral receptacle with numerous transverse wrinkles and two ventral longitudinal furrows.
Malloch (1933) last revised the species of Alloclusia and Apiochaeta, describing nine of the 14 known species. An identification key and some illustrations of the wings and surstyli were also provided. Prior to Malloch's paper, Czerny (1903) and Melander & Argo (1924) revised the species in these genera, although only four species were known at the time. A phylogenetic study of these genera is currently being developed (Lonsdale & Marshall in manuscript).
References
Czerny, P.L. 1903. Revision der Heteroneuriden. Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 22(3): 61-108.
Melander, A.L. & N.G. Argo. 1924. Revision of the two-winged flies of the family Clusiidae. Proceedings of the United States Natural History Museum 64: 1-54.
Malloch, J.R. 1933. Facile 4 – Acalyptrata [part]. The Diptera of Patagonia and South Chile. Clusiidae. Pt. VI pp. 232-245. British Museum of Natural History, London, 499pp.
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Peratochaetus similis-complex |
|---|---|
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Sex | Female |
| Copyright |
© Steve Marshall
|
| Scientific Name | Alloclusia limbipennis (Rondani) |
|---|---|
| Location | Chile |
| Specimen Condition | Dead Specimen |
| Life Cycle Stage | Adult |
| Body Part | Head |
| Image Use |
 This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
|
| Copyright |
© Owen Lonsdale
|
About This Page
Owen Lonsdale
University of Guelph, Canada
Steve Marshall
University of Guelph, Canada
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Owen Lonsdale at and Steve Marshall at
Page copyright © 2005 Owen Lonsdale and Steve Marshall
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Alloclusia .
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- First online 25 August 2005
Citing this page:
Lonsdale, Owen and Steve Marshall. 2005. Alloclusia . Version 25 August 2005 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Alloclusia/27674/2005.08.25 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
