Dicranota ( Dicranota ) Zetterstedt, 1838

Dicranota ( Dicranota) Zetterstedt, 1838 View in CoL

Dicranota ( Dicranota) View in CoL : Edwards 1938: 51, 59; Alexander 1950: 18; Ishida 1958: 40; Tjeder 1959: 5; Brindle 1963: 235; Mendl 1972: 150; Savchenko and Krivolutskaya 1976: 45; Savchenko 1983: 39; Savchenko 1986: 188; Savchenko 1989: 17.

Type species.

Dicranota guerini Zetterstedt, 1838 (by monotypy) (Western and Eastern Palaearctic).

Description.

Medium-sized to largest Dicranota crane flies with body length 6.3–9.0 mm and wing length 7.0– 11.5 mm. Body colouration varies from brownish yellow to dark brown or dark grey.

Head. Antenna 12 - or 13 - segmented, longer than in most Dicranota , reaching at least to approximately middle of presutural scutum, sometimes well beyond base of abdomen, if bent backwards. Male antenna often comparatively longer than that of female. Flagellomeres elongate, verticils short, not exceeding length of respective segments. Apical antennomere usually small, shorter than preceding segment.

Thorax. Presutural scutum with three or four dark longitudinal stripes, medial stripe could have paler narrow line along middle. Wing with comparatively short radial sector, it is only ~ 2.3 × as long as vein m-cu. Cell r 2 with supernumerary cross-vein. Discal cell usually open due to atrophy of m-m, sometimes closed. Cell m 1 short to very short, distinctly shorter than its stem, sometimes missing.

Abdomen. Epandrium of male terminalia comparatively simple, posterior margin nearly straight or concave, without additional lobes at the middle, lateral lobe, if present, small and simple. Gonocoxite with blunt, densely setose dorso-apical lobe. Interbase elongate, species specific, often used for species delimitation. Two pairs of gonostyli. Outer gonostylus elongate, fleshy and setose, inner gonostylus pale, elongate, usually covered with small spines and often bearing subbasal lobe. Ovipositor with long cercus and hypogynial valve, tip of cercus raised upwards, dorsal margin of hypogynial valve setose at base, setae comparatively short.

Remarks.

The subgenus Dicranota s. str. includes 38 species (subspecies of D. yezoensis are treated as separate species here) distributed in the Holarctic and Oriental regions ( Oosterbroek 2025). Richest in species are the East Palaearctic and Nearctic faunas, each with 14 species, the Oriental Region has eight, and the West Palaearctic four species. Three species are known from both, West and East Palaearctic.