ISRAEL JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY, Vol. 49 (2), pp. 195–214 (30 October 2019) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3522860; ISSN (online) 2224-6304 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FAEA45EA-A261-49F6-B453-049537AB0685 This contribution is published to honor Dr. Amnon Freidberg, a scientist, a colleague and a friend, on the occasion of his 75 th birthday. The Amblypsilopus amnoni and megastoma groups in New Guinea (Diptera: Dolichopodidae: Sciapodinae) Daniel J. Bickel Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010 Australia. E-mail: Dan.Bickel@austmus.gov.au ABSTRACT Two new species groups in the rich genus Amblypsilopus Bigot (Diptera: Doli- chopodidae: Sciapodinae) are described from New Guinea. The amnoni group with an elongate surstylus comprises six species: A. amnoni n. sp., A. ibiscorum n. sp., A. kaindi n. sp., A. okapa n. sp., A. pascali n. sp., A. pulverulentus (Parent) and A. riuensis n. sp. The megastoma group with a greatly enlarged proboscis in both sexes is described with two species, A. ialibu n. sp. and A. megastoma n. sp. Known females of both the amnoni and megastoma groups have some anterior dorsocentral setae reduced to fine hairs, normally a character only found as a male secondary sexual character in Sciapodinae. The is another example in the Sciapodinae where an otherwise male secondary sexual character has been incorporated into the female phenotype. KEYWORDS: Diptera, Dolichopodidae, Sciapodinae, long-legged flies, Austra- lasian Region, Papua New Guinea, biodiversity, new species, taxonomy, iden- tification key. INTRODUCTION The Sciapodinae (Dolichopodidae) are a cohesive dolichopodid subfamily, often readily identified by the excavated vertex and/or branched vein M. The genus Am- blypsilopus comprises metallic blue-green flies often with slender yellow legs and “swept-back” wings. Most species are small-sized (wing length less than 3.0 mm) and rather delicate. The legs of males are often elongate and bear fine secondary sexual characters such as modified setae and flags, and as such are easily damaged in traps or sweep samples. The genus is pan-tropical with many species and acts as a “holding taxon” rather than a strict monophyletic clade (see review in Bickel 1994, 2009a). The Australian Amblypsilopus fauna is the best documented with 84 described species (Bickel 1994). However, many more species await both collection and description, especially from the poorly known Oriental and Australasian tropics. As an example of potential richness, the fauna of the small-sized Fiji archipelago comprises 30 species (Bickel 2006, 2009a). The Amblypsilopus fauna of the topographically complex New Guinea