McAlpine: Australian Helosciomyzidae 
57 
anterior epandrial process and basal surstylar process present; 
aedeagus without epiphallus . 
Halter entirely yellow; antennal segment 2 tawny-brown; 
height of cheek greater than 0.25 of height of eye; wing 
membrane usually less distinctly pigmented, except sometimes 
for suffusion around cross-veins; male postabdomen: anterior 
epandrial process and basal surstylar process absent; aedeagus 
with elongate epiphallus . 
Genus Eurotocus Steyskal 
Eurotocus Steyskal, in Steyskal & Knutson, 1979: 728. Type 
species (original designation) Eurotocus australis Steyskal. 
This monotypic genus is distinguished as indicated in 
the key to genera. 
Eurotocus australis Steyskal 
Fig. 13 
Eurotocus australis Steyskal, in Steyskal & Knutson, 1979: 
728-730, figs 1, 3-6, 28-33, 38, 39 (not figs 36, 37 as 
listed by Steyskal); Barnes, 1981: 53-54, figs 7, 8. 
Type material (re-examined D.K.M.). Holotype S- Victoria: 
Mount Baw Baw, near Tanjilbren, 4400 ft [c. 1340 m], 
30.xi.1964, G.L.B.-64132 (AM K264608). Postabdomen 
in micro-vial on pin. Allotype Victoria: same data as 
holotype (AM). Paratypes. South Australia and Victoria: see 
list of Steyskal and Knutson (1979) (AM, SAM). 
Other material examined (localities only given). Victoria: 
Lake Mountain (MV); Mount Donna Buang, near summit 
(AM). New South Wales: 5.6 km W of Perisher Valley, 
Kosciuszko National Park (AM). 
Distribution. Victoria: mainly mountainous areas. South 
Australia: Adelaide and southeastern districts. New South 
Wales: Snowy Mountains district. 
Notes 
Steyskal and Knutson (1979) described the puparium of this 
species, and recorded the larvae as found in agaric fungi at 
Adelaide by Adolfo Lutz in 1892, perhaps during a brief 
stop-over by that Brazilian entomologist. 
Genus Luta n.gen. 
Type species: Helosciomyza luteipennis Steyskal. 
Description. Moderately large, robust flies for family, 
agreeing with Helosciomyza s.str. in most characters. 
Head slightly longer than high; height of cheek generally 
slightly less than one quarter of height of eye; cheek anteriorly 
usually with only the one peristomial series of setulae. 
Antennal segment 2 black (unfaded specimens); segment 
3 largely black, rounded-oval; segment 5 subcylindrical, c. 
twice as long as its diameter. 
Thorax. Dorsocentral bristles two pairs; scutellum convex 
dorsally, with two pairs of bristles; upper part of stemopleuron 
with relatively few hairs (or long setulae) on central section, 
bare anteriorly and posteriorly. Mid femur with non-seriate 
anterior bristles of various sizes; hind femur with two or more 
anterior to anterodorsal bristles; fore tarsus stouter in male 
than in female, with segment 4 not as short as in Helosciomyza 
fuscinevris group; fore tarsal claws notably longer in male 
Luta, p. 57 
Helosciomyza, p. 58 
than in female; hind basitarsus of male without scopula, with 
an anteroventral series of short stout spinules extending for 
most of its length, these spinules less developed in female. 
Wing: costa with anterior spaced spines; dorsal series of spines 
absent. Halter with yellow pedicel and brown capitellum. 
Male postabdomen. Anterior epandrial process and basal 
surstylar process present; epiphallus absent (see Steyskal & 
Knutson, 1979: figs 19-21). 
Notes 
The genus includes only Luta luteipennis. 
Barnes (1981) included L. luteipennis in the genus 
Neosciomyza, but it appears that the points of resemblance 
are mainly plesiomorphies, or, in the case of the convex 
scutellum, also shared with a relatively isolated species in 
the genus Helosciomyza, H. anaxantha Steyskal. 
Luta is further distinguished from Neosciomyza by 
the following characters: the anterolateral margin of the 
epandrium is flexed inwards on each side to form a well 
defined crescentic plate lying in a transverse plane, the 
surstylus is narrowed basally and is without an internal ridge 
defining the basal plate, the basal surstylar process is short 
and stout, and the anterior epandrial process has a thick blunt 
apex with a brush of dense, curved pubescence. 
Probably Luta is most closely related to Helosciomyza 
as delimited here and by Barnes (1981), but it lacks the 
apomorphic conditions of the male postabdomen, which 
help to define the latter genus. 
The generic name is derived from the name of the type 
species and is grammatically feminine. 
Luta luteipennis (Steyskal) n.comb. 
Figs 4, 5, 11 
Helosciomyza luteipennis Steyskal, in Steyskal & Knutson, 
1979: 736, figs 19-22. 
Neosciomyza luteipennis (Steyskal).-Barnes, 1981: 61-63, 
figs 30,31. 
Type material (re-examined D.K.M.). Holotype S• New 
South Wales: Mount Wilson, Blue Mountains, 11 .xii. 1959 
(not 1969 as given by Steyskal), D.K.M. (AM K264312). 
Double-mounted on micro-pin through polyporus, repaired 
with glue on thorax. Allotype same data as holotype. 
Paratypes. New South Wales: Mount Wilson and Wright’s 
Lookout, as listed by Steyskal (AM, ANIC). 
Distribution. New South Wales: higher mountains of 
Northern and Central Tablelands districts. 
Notes 
At Mount Wilson, Blue Mountains, I have repeatedly found 
L. luteipennis in small numbers in shaded areas in the 
temperate rain forest, altitude c. 900 m, mainly in the months 
from October to April. 
