The Bibionidae of New Zealand (Diptera) 
D. Elmo Hardy^ 
The family Bibionidae is poorly represented 
in the New Zealand fauna; only two genera 
have been recorded to date. These are repre- 
sented by six species of Philia and one species 
of Bibio, The Bibio is an Australian species, 
but the Philia species are endemic and known 
only from New Zealand. It is interesting to 
note that two of the New Zealand species 
represent very nearly the minimum and maxi- 
mum ranges in size for the Philia of the world. 
Specimens of P. tuthilli n. sp. range down to 
about 2.2 mm. in length. I know of only one 
species in the entire genus which is possibly 
smaller than this— P. gratiosa (Bigot) of India 
is reputed to be 2.0 mm. in length. Specimens 
of P. nigrostigma (Walker) measure up to 10.0 
mm. in length. The only other species which 
I know that is this large is P. gigantea (Mac- 
quart) from the Neotropical Region. 
This study is based largely upon material 
which was collected by Dr. L. D. Tuthill of 
the University of Hawaii and Mr. R. A. Har- 
rison, Entomologist, Department of Scientific 
and Industrial Research, Auckland, New Zea- 
land. I am indebted to these workers for the 
privilege of studying this interesting material. 
Bibio imitator Walker 
Bibio imitator 1834, Ent. Mag. 2: 470. 
B. substitutis Walker, 1848, List. Dipt. Brit. 
Mus. 1: 121 Q synonym). 
B. fulvipennis Macquart, 1850, Dipt. Exot. 
Suppl. 4: 17. 
B. ruficoxisyi 2 ^cogdd.n, 1850, Dipt. Exot. Suppl. 
4: 17. 
. 1 Department of Zoology and Entomology, Uni- 
versity of Hawaii. Manuscript received May 5, 1952. 
B. elegans Jaennicke, 1867, Abhandl. Senck- 
end. Ges. 6: 317. 
B. helioscops Schiner, 1868, Reise Novara, Dipt. 
2 : 20 . 
This is the only species of Bibio which has 
been recorded from New Zealand. It is dis- 
tinguished from other Pacific Bibio by the 
all-black coloring, brown fumose wings, and 
dense yellow pile on the -body of the males 
and by the all-rufous head, thorax, and ab- 
domen, and the dark reddish-brown to black 
legs (excluding the coxae) of the females. 
length: Body, 6. 5-7. 5 mm.; wings, 6.5- 
8.0 mm. 
TYPE locality: "New Holland.” 
Type in the British Museum (Natural His- 
tory). The species occurs in Australia, Tas- 
mania, and New Zealand. I have not seen it 
from the latter country but have seen a large 
series of specimens from many localities in 
Australia. 
Key to Philia known from New Zealand 
1. Wing venation normal, no incomplete 
veins and crossveins 2 
Venation incomplete, the m crossvein and 
the bases of veins M 1+2 and Mi are lacking; 
very tiny species, body 2.2-2.63 mm 
tuthilli n. sp. 
2. Eront tibiae each with 3 spines, arranged 
on a strong prominence at the upper third 
of the segment, and a single spine situated 
at the apical two thirds of the tibia (Eig. 
^a). Wings brownish fumose. Large spe- 
cies, body 6.5-10.0 mm. in length 
nigrostigma (Walker) 
Spines on front tibiae not arranged as 
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