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Volume 57, 1927
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Historical.

Up till now only 39 species of Mycetophilidae were known from New Zealand; these were distributed in 19 genera.

The first three species were described by Hutton in his “Catalogue of N.Z. Diptera, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera” 1881. They were:

  • Mycetophila guttata

  • Patyura tridens

  • Sciara rufescens.

The first two belong respectively to the genera Anomalomyia and Nervijuncta; the third is unsufficiently characterized by the description, and as the type is lost this species should be suppressed from the list.

In 1891 Skuse describes Bolitophila luminosa, which had been obtained in breeding through the well-known glow-worm by Mr. G. V. Hudson, who gives, in the same paper (Trans N.Z. Inst., vol. 23, p. 47), an account of the life-history of this interesting species.

In 1892 Osten-Sacken (Berl. Ent. Zeit., 27 pp. 432–4) discusses a species of Nervijuncta (referred to by him as Platyura) and also mentions the occurrence in New Zealand of a species of Platyroptylon, which has never been recorded since.

Professor P. Marshall was the first specially to direct his attention to the fungus-gnats of New Zealand, and he embodied the result of his investigations on that family in an important paper (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 28, 1896, p. 250–309) in which 33 new species were described and 10 new genera erected to receive some of them and also some of those previously described by Hutton. However, two of these species fall in synonymy with others of his own, and four of his new genera with some well-known ones from the holarctic region. Here is a list of the species dealt with in this paper:

  • Cycloneura (n. gen.) hudsoni (gen. Nervijuncta Marsh.);

  • Nervijuncta (n. gen.) nigrescens;

  • Huttonia (n. gen.) tridens Marsh.;

  • Macrocera montana = howletti;

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  • Macrocera antennalis;

  • Macrocera scoparia;

  • Ceroplatus dendyi (gen. Cerotelion Rond.);

  • Ceroplatus hudsoni;

  • Ceroplatus leucoceras;

  • Platyura magna;

  • Platyura agricola;

  • Platyura flava (name preoccupied);

  • Sciophila fagi (gen. Aneura Marsh.);

  • Sciophila hirta (gen. Taxicnemis nov.);

  • Parvicellula (n. gen.) triangulata;

  • Tetragoneura nigra;

  • Aneura (n. gen.) boletinoides;

  • Cycloneura (n. gen.) flava;

  • Paradoxa (n. gen.) fusca;

  • Euryceras (n. gen.) anaclinoides (gen. Allocotocera Mik.);

  • Anomala (n. gen.) guttata Hutt. (gen. Anomalomyia Hutt.);

  • Anomala minor;

  • Aphelomera skusei;

  • Zygomyia flavicoxa;

  • Zygomyia fusca;

  • Brachydicrania hiemalis (gen. Exechia Winn.);

  • Mycetophila sylvatica;

  • Mycetophila howletti;

  • Mycetophila fagi = variabilis = robusta;

  • Mycetophila maculata (name preoccupied);

  • Brevicornu (n. gen.) flava (gen. Allodia Winn.).

His types, mostly in good condition, are preserved in the collection of the Cawthron Institute.

A few years later, in a paper on New Zealand Diptera (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 34, 1901, p. 192) Hutton describes two species of Sciarinae: Sciara marcilla and Trichosia remota. A study of the type of the latter shows that it belongs to the genus Lestremyia (Cecidomyiidae) and has consequently to be removed from the list of N.Z. Mycetophilidae.

In his “Index Faunae Novae Zealandiae” 1901, Hutton proposes three new generic names: Arctoneura, Casa, and Anomalomyia, to replace respectively Cyrtoneura, Huttonia, and Anomala, which were preoccupied.

D. Miller under the title “A new Fungus Gnat which Fertilizes Corizantes Oblonga” (N.Z. Journ. Sc. & Tech., 1918, vol. 1, p. 4), describes Exechia thomsoni, a species which is unsufficiently characterized and the type of which has been unfortunately lost.

In 1911 Enderlein (Stett. Ent. Zeit., vol. 72, p. 174) changes Mycetophila maculata Marsh into M. marshalli, the former name being preoccupied.

In a study on the sub-family Ditomyiinae (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (g), vol. 7, 1921, p. 435), F. W. Edwards describes, among others, a species of New Zealand Nervijuncta (Arctoneura): N. Wakefieldi from the collection of the Oxford Museum.

Quite recently the same author (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (9), vol. 14, 1924, p. 175) erects a new genus to receive Bolitophila luminosa.

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As a result of the study of the very extensive material before us the number of species of New Zealand fungus-gnats is brought from 39 to 267, and that of the genera from 19 to 38.

We give hereunder a complete list of the species, including those that were described previously, and with their synonymy:

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