54 
Records of the Australian Museum (2012) Vol. 64 
especially those of the fore-tarsus, are longer and less curved 
than those of the females (Figs 6, 7). 
In males of Helosciomyza juscinevris there is a group 
of minute setulae on the pleural membrane of the abdomen 
immediately behind and below spiracle 1. In females of the 
species these setulae are usually absent, but sometimes a 
few are present. 
In the fuscinevris group of Helosciomyza , abdominal 
sternite 5 of the male is partly divided by median 
desclerotization and bears on each side a zone of particularly 
dense black setulae. No such division or specialized setulose 
zones are present in the female. 
Taxonomy of Helosciomyzidae 
The Helosciomyzidae are probably most closely related 
to the Dryomyzidae, which are restricted to the Northern 
Hemisphere, or perhaps to the Helcomyzidae, represented 
in both hemispheres but not in Australia (see Meier and 
Wiegmann, 2002 for probable phylogenetic relationships). 
The Helosciomyzidae can be separated from these related 
fa mil ies by the following combination of characters. 
1 Costa of wing with a series of large spaced spines 
near and beyond termination of subcosta (Fig. 5). 
2 Costagial bristles two, anteroventral one located 
distad of anterodorsal one (Fig. 4). 
3 Anal cell (cell cup) less than half as long as second 
section of vein 4 (between basal and anterior 
crossveins). 
4 Anal crossvein (transverse section of CuA2) very 
strongly recurved. 
5 Distal section of vein 6 (CuA2+Al) thickened 
on c. basal third or less, then becoming rather 
abruptly attenuated, but visibly reaching wing 
margin. 
6 Prosternum without precoxal bridges. 
7 Metastemum without setulae. 
8 Three postgenal bristles generally differentiated 
(Fig. 13), except in occasional deviant individuals. 
9 Tarsi with distal segments depressed. 
10 Preabdominal spiracles located in pleural 
membrane. 
11 In males, fore and hind basitarsi without rounded 
terminal ventral projection. 
12 In females, abdominal tergites 3 to 5 without 
single enlarged lateral marginal bristle, with largest 
bristles on posterior margin. 
13 In females, abdominal tergite 7 and sternite 7 
separated by pleural membrane. 
Most helosciomyzids have a distinct membranous line 
in the mid-dorsal region partly separating abdominal 
tergites 1 and 2, and Barnes (1981: table 1) has given this 
character as a distinction between “Helosciomyzidae sensu 
stricto” and “Dryomyzidae sensu stricto”, which have this 
suture indistinct. However, in the helosciomyzid genus 
Polytocus Lamb there is no trace of such a suture, and in 
Sciogriphoneura Malloch it is reduced to a slight groove 
without desclerotization. The character is therefore omitted 
from the above list. 
The Neotropical genus Sciogriphoneura Malloch was 
placed in the Dryomyzidae by Steyskal (1977) and in the 
Helosciomyzidae by Barnes (1981). My study of S. nigri- 
ventris Malloch, shows it to agree with the Helosciomyzidae 
in the first twelve of the numbered character states given 
above, except that one specimen shows asymmetrical 
variation in the number of postgenal bristles (character 8). 
In the only available female segment 7 is not visible, so 
that character 13 cannot be assessed. On the other hand, 
typical dryomyzids show disagreement in characters 1, 2, 3, 
4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 (the last character inconsistently); but this 
assessment does not include the genus Oedoparena Curran, 
which I regard as doubtfully referable to Dryomyzidae. 
[The larvae of Dryomyza Fallen (objective syn. Neuroctena 
Rondani) and Oedoparena (see Ozerov, 1998, or, for more 
detail, Burger etal., 1980, and Barnes, 1984) are so different 
in external form and structure that discovery of a strong set 
of synapomorphies is required to justify the inclusion of 
both taxa in one family]. Barnes (1981: 64) recorded that 
Sciogriphoneura possesses, in the male, both the anterior 
epandrial process and the basal surstylar process, as in many 
more plesiomorphic helosciomyzids, but the former is also 
present in typical dryomyzids. 
On the above basis I confidently assign Sciogriphoneura 
to the Helosciomyzidae. I believe that this correction, 
together with others made previously (D. McAlpine, 1995), 
leaves no valid record of the Dryomyzidae in the Southern 
Hemisphere. 
Griffiths (1972) included the endemic New Zealand 
group, now called Huttoninidae, in the Helosciomyzidae, 
but Barnes (1979, 1981) considered that there were no 
clear synapomorphies to justify combining the two groups. 
Colless and McAlpine (1991) recognized the Huttoninidae 
as a separate family. The Huttoninidae are distinguished 
from the Helosciomyzidae by having: no spaced costal 
spines; distal section of vein 6 strongly sclerotized, but 
terminating abruptly at c. three quarters of distance to wing 
margin; vein 7 not forming a visible crease beyond alula; 
abdomen of female with tergite 7 and sternite 7 fused. Barnes 
(1979) also stated that the huttoninids differ in having the 
aedeagus bilobed, covered with fine scale-like structures. 
I am not at present in a position to test the consistency of 
this condition. The huttoninids generally have the ptilinal 
fissure less developed than in the helosciomyzids, though 
variable in extent and perhaps not always functional. In the 
Helosciomyzidae the ptilinal fissure apparently encloses 
a functional ptilinum, and its lateral arms are moderately 
long, usually ventrally diverging from the parafacial suture 
(terminating close to parafacial suture in Scoiogriphoneura ). 
The Helosciomyzidae, in common with the Dryomyzidae, 
Helcomyzidae, Coelopidae, and Heterocheilidae, have the 
postalar callus of the mesoscutum convex, defined by an 
oblique depression or shallow groove on the anteromedian 
side, and bearing two large bristles (Fig. 11). In the 
Huttoninidae, as in the Lauxaniidae, the postalar callus has 
no separate convexity, and no oblique depression separates 
it from the general dorsal surface of the mesoscutum (Fig. 
12); it bears a typical postalar bristle on its lateral angular 
prominence and the second, more dorsal bristle occupies the 
position of a typical posterior intra-alar bristle. 
From Australasian taxa of Sciomyzidae, the Heloscio¬ 
myzidae can generally be distinguished by having the 
prelabrum (“clypeus” in error) anteriorly prominent and only 
narrowly separated from the face (more reduced in the New 
Zealand genera Napaeosciomyza Barnes and Dasysciomyza 
Barnes), the costa with prominent spaced spines, and usually 
two large sternopleural bristles (anterior one sometimes 
reduced in very hirsute males). I have noted previously (D. 
