Davide Badano, Bradley J Sinclair, Qingqing Zhang, Francesca Palermo, Nicola Pieroni, Laura Maugeri, Michela Fratini, Pierfilippo Cerretti
Dance flies and relatives (Empidoidea) are a diverse and ecologically important group of Diptera in nearly all modern terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossil record, despite being scattered, attests to a long evolutionary history dating back to the early Mesozoic. Here, we describe seven new species of Empidoidea from Cretaceous Kachin amber inclusions, assigning them to the new genus Electrochoreutes gen.n. (type species: Electrochoreutes trisetigerus sp.n.) based on unique apomorphies among known Diptera. Like many extant dance flies, the males of Electrochoreutes are characterized by species-specific sexually dimorphic traits, which are likely to have played a role in courtship...
April 20, 2023: Cladistics