Lonsdale: Australian Heteromeringia flies (Clusiidae) 
247 
Heteromeringia imitans Malloch, 1930 
Figs 96-98 
Heteromeringia imitans Malloch, 1930:435. D.K. McAlpine, 
1960: 72. Sasakawa, 1966: 97. 
Heteromeringia immitans Frey, 1960: 23. 
Type material. Holotype: Queensland: N Queensland, Cairns, 1907, 
coll. Liechtwardt (1$, DEI). 
Additional material examined. New South Wales: E NSW, Royal National 
Park, OtfordAVerrong trek, 13.X.2002, 34.13S/151.01E, diff. types forest, 
sandy/strony[sic] beach, B. Merz (1 MHNG). Queensland: N QLD, 
Middle Claudie Riv., Iron Range, G. Daniels, 16.ix. 1974 (1^, AMS), 
7.x. 1974 (1$, AMS), 15.10S 145.07E, 3.5km SW by S of Mt. Baird, 
4.V.1981, D.H. Colless (1$, ANIC), 12.43S 143.17E, 9km ENE of Mt. 
Tozer, 5-10.vii. 1986, D.H. Colless (1$, ANIC). 
Type 2 females. New South Wales: Carrai SF, 30°59'45"S 152°16'23"E, 
930 m, E. Tasker, 3-8.xii. 1997, sticky trap on E. campanulata, CS-FZ-127- 
6 (1$, AMS; 1$, DEBU), Carrai SF, 31°00'19"S 152°16'24''E, 940 m, E. 
Tasker, 11-164.1998, sticky trap on E. campanulata, CS-GP-018-4 (1$, 
AMS), Werrikimbe NP, 31°12'00"S 152°09’00"E, 1060 m, E. Tasker, 1-7. 
xii.1997, sticky trap on E. viminalis, WC-MR-127-6 (1 AMS), Tinda 
Creek, Putty Rd., 19.x. 1993, D.K. McAlpine & B.J. Day (1$, AMS). 
Type 3 females. Queensland: 15.03S 145.09E, 3km NE of Mt. Webb, 
30.iv.1981, D.H. Colless, at light (1?, ANIC), 4km N Cardwell, Edmund 
Kennedy N.P., 28.iv. 1994, ex. coastal for., B.J. Sinclair (1 CNC), The 
Boulders nr Babinda, 274.1991, McAlpine & B. Day (1$, AMS). 
Redescription 
Male. Unknown. 
Female. Body length 3.4-4.5 mm. Bristles black. First 
flagellomere orbicular. Arista pubescent. Vibrissa relatively 
long and curved. Ocellar bristle long and thin. Two 
dorsocentral bristles. Gena neither high nor strongly 
incurved. Face and buccal cavity lightly pilose and slightly 
curving. Head dark brown with anterior margin of frons 
sometimes orange (non-types), pedicel and scape orange, 
first flagellomere light yellow with anterior margin and distal 
Vs of inner face dark brown, and dorsal half of gena dirty 
orange and silvery tomentose; anterior Vs of frons pilose 
medially. Thorax dark brown. Legs yellow with apex of fore 
femur dark brown, fore tibia and tarsi dark brown, and coxae 
and base of femora white. Fore tarsi strongly compressed 
laterally. Abdomen dark brown with terminalia yellow. M 1+2 
ratio 8.0; length between cross veins approximately as long 
as dm-cu. Wing darkly clouded (fading past midpoint of third 
radial cell). Halter white with stalk and base of knob black. 
Female terminalia (Fig. 96). Ventral receptacle broadly 
rounded with flagellum long and straight. Spermatheca 
longer than wide, rounded at ends, slightly wrinkled along 
inner-basal surface and with pale speckles medially. 
Variation 
AMS females differ as follows: head entirely dark brown 
to black; palpus approximately twice as high; terminalia 
entirely dark brown. 
“Type 2” females differ as follows: palpus small and thin 
(nearly cylindrical in cross section); knob of halter white 
(possibly brown in two specimens); legs dark brown with fore 
coxa and basal half of fore femur white, base of mid and hind 
femur white, and mid and hind tibiae sometimes paler with 
distal l A yellow; first flagellomere black, usually with base 
and inner-ventral margin yellow; face, parafacial and anterior 
half of gena sometimes yellowish-orange and only base of 
fore femur yellow; spermathecae without “freckles”, slightly 
wider at base and with subapical flagellum coiled (Fig. 97). 
“Type 3” females differ as follows: ocellar bristle as long 
as ocellar tubercle; relatively well developed setula (c. Vs 
length anterior dorsocentral) in front of anterior dorsocentral; 
body (including halter in ANIC and CNC specimens) almost 
entirely dark brown with inner half of mid coxa yellow, 
antenna (excluding arista) yellow with first flagellomere 
black on anterior margin and inner-distal half, mid and hind 
tibiae dark yellow with base darker, and mid and hind tarsi 
yellow; frons shiny; wing dusky along anterodistal margin; 
M 1+2 ratio 4.6. Sternite and tergite 8 entirely fused; stemite 
8 with two small, overlapping, unpigmented posteromedial 
circles. CNC female paler: legs yellow with mid and hind 
coxae brown and fore tarsi, tibia and inner-distal spot on 
fore femur dark brown; parafacial rusty and apex of palpus 
yellow; spermathecal duct (Fig. 98) nearly twice length of 
that in ANIC female. 
Comments. D.K. McAlpine (1960) mentioned that the 
stalk of the halter is brown in this species, but it appears to 
be blacker in hue with the pigment extending to surround 
much of the base of the knob. Most other Australian 
Heteromeringia with a completely or predominantly dark 
thorax have the stalk tinged with brown, at least basally; 
similar brown pigmentation is found in all Afrotropical 
species and several Oriental and Oceanian species, although 
the colour is usually also restricted to the base. 
In addition to the “typical” Heteromeringia imitans 
females described above, there are eight additional females 
representing two distinctly different morphologies. While 
these females may belong to separate species, the striking 
variation characteristic of Old World Heteromeringia 
demands that extra caution be taken when delineating 
lineages represented by females alone. In “type 2” females, 
the head is most distinct: it is almost entirely black, excluding 
the scape, pedicel, and (sometimes) the base of the first 
flagellomere, as well as either the mentum and labellum or 
the face and anterodorsal margin of the gena. The head is also 
relatively round and shiny (excluding a dorsal pilose stripe 
on the gena) and the palpus is very thin and cylindrical. A 
similarly thin palpus is only otherwise seen in H. trisetosa, 
H. helina, some H. spinulosa and the species related to 
H. laticornis, but the presence of a coiled (not straight) 
flagellum on the ventral receptacle would seem to exclude 
any relationship with these species. “Type 3” females also 
have entirely dark forelegs and an entirely dark and shiny 
head, although the antenna is yellow with the anterior margin 
and inner-distal half of the first flagellomere is black. The 
rest of the body is also very dark, excluding parts of the mid 
and hind legs, and there is a relatively well developed setula 
in front of the anterior dorsocentral (approximately Vs length 
of anterior bristle). 
