ISSN 0013-8738, Entomological Review, 2011, Vol. 91, No. 6, pp. 778–795. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2011.
Original Russian Text © E.P. Nartshuk, L.I. Fedoseeva, 2011, published in Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 2011, Vol. 90, No. 2, pp. 442–463.
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A Review of Grassflies of the Genus Meromyza Meigen, 1830
(Diptera, Chloropidae) of the Palaearctic Fauna with a Key
to Species, Analysis of the Synonymy, Host Specialization,
and Geographic Distribution. Part 2
E. P. Nartshuk and L. I. Fedoseeva
Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 199034 Russia
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Received April 29, 2010
Abstract—The second part of the paper considers the position of the genus Meromyza Meigen, 1830 in the system
of the family Chloropidae, its intrageneric classification, species synonymy, food plants, habitat preferences, geo-
graphic distribution of its species, and the faunas of some regions in the Palaearctic. A list of literature is provided.
DOI: 10.1134/S001387381106011X
THE POSITION OF THE GENUS IN THE FAMILY
AND ITS INTRAGENERIC TAXONOMY
Genus Meromyza Meigen, 1830
Meigen, 1830 : 163.
The position of the genus Meromyza in the family
does not cause any division among specialists, who
either include it into the group Platycephala (Anders-
son, 1977; Kanmiya, 1983) or place it together
with the African genus Archimeromyza Deeming into
a separate subtribe Meromyzina of the tribe Platy-
cephalini, which also includes the genera Meromyzella
Andersson, 1977, Pachylophus Loew, 1858, Platy-
cephalisca Nartshuk, 1959, Platycephala Fallén, 1820,
Eurina Meigen, 1830, Trichieurina Duda, 1933, and
Camarota Meigen, 1830 (Nartshuk, 1983, 1987).
The rather numerous species of the genus
Meromyza are sufficiently uniform in their external
characters and easily distinguishable from those of
other genera. The only exception is the Sakhalin-
Japanese M. nipponensis Nishijima which differs from
the other species in the black body and the structure
of the male genitalia, especially the shape of the
surstyli. This species was placed into a separate
subgenus Nippomera Fedoseeva et Nartshuk, 1983
(Nartshuk and Fedoseeva, 1983). It is still unknown
whether the Chinese, mostly black colored M. nigripes
Duda also belongs to this subgenus, since the
male genitalia in this species have not been studied
yet.
Frey (1921) established the genus Aschabadicola
Frey, 1921 for the Turkmenian species M. longicornis
characterized by the elongated shape of the postpedi-
cel. Although in the taxonomy of the family Chlo-
ropidae the shape of the postpedicel is used as
a genus-level character, establishment of the genus
seems to be unjustified in this case since the shape of
the pedicel in Aschabadicola longicornis only incon-
siderably differs from that in other species, whereas in
all the remaining characters A. longicornis remains
within the limits of the genus and even the nomino-
typical subgenus. Nartshuk (1984 : 264) considered
Aschabadicola as a synonym of Meromyza in the cata-
logue of the Palaearctic species.
Smirnov and Fedoseeva (1967) attempted a study of
the taxonomic structure of the genus Meromyza; how-
ever the results appeared to be insufficiently informa-
tive. Their analysis included many characters of col-
oration, which are rather variable in this genus. The
cited authors concluded that Meromyza was an exam-
ple of an intermediate state between the completely
homogeneous taxa and those distinctly subdivided into
subgroups.
Three groups of species can be clearly distinguished
in the nominotypical subspecies by the structure of
their male genitalia. One of them unites species close
to M. pratorum Meigen, distinguished by long setae on
the epandrium, narrow, more or less club-shaped
surstyli, the posterior process of postgonites posi-
tioned laterally of the anterior one and connected with