The endemic New World eucheiloid complex is distinguished from the other complexes (thyreopteroid, eurycoleoid, somotrichoid, and pericaloid) of pericaline Lebiini by securiform labial palpomere 3, serrate-setose margins of the pronotum, and flattened stylomere 2 of the ovipositor. The geographical range of eucheiloids extends from northern Argentina to southernmost United States (Brownsville, Texas). All taxa are believed to be arboreal. A key distinguishes among the three genera and 16 species, and each taxon is characterized in terms of structural features, habitat, and geographical distribution. The genera are:Hansus, new genus (generitype—H. reichardti, new species);InnaPutzeys (generitype—Inna punctataPutzeys =Polystichus boyeri(Solier)); andEucheilaDejean (generitype—Euchyla flavilabris(Dejean)). Seven new species and one new subspecies are described:Hansus reichardti(type locality—Guyana, EssequiboR.. Morrabali Ck.);Inna palpalis,I. atrata arbor, andI. inpa(type locality—Brazil, Amazonas, near Manaus);I. purpurea(type locality—Brazil, Amazonas, 60 km n. Manaus);I. splendens(type locality—Venezuela, Aragua, Rancho Grande);Eucheila adisi(type locality—Brazil, Amazonas, 60 km n. Manaus); andE. cordova(type locality—México, Veracruz, Cordova). The following new synonymies of specific names are proposed (valid names listed first):Inna costulataChaudoir, 1872 =I. granulataChaudoir, 1872;Inna boyeri(Solier, 1835) =I. punctataPutzeys, 1863, andI. texanaSchaeffer, 1910. A reconstructed phylogeny of the eucheiloids, based on analysis of 60 character states included in 33 characters, shows thatHansusis sister group of the ancestral stock ofInna+Eucheila. Evolutionary modifications have affected principally body size, head and mouthparts (feeding and associated adaptations), reproductive structures, and features of the body surface thought to be associated with avoidance of predators (concealment and flash coloration). Diversification may also have involved differentiation by habitat (type of forest occupied). The principal theater of evolution has been tropical South America, with incursions both southward and northward. Middle America has been invaded by five lineages, probably during Cenozoic time, from Middle Tertiary to the Quaternary. Of these lineages, three are represented in Middle America by endemic species:E. cordova,I. planipennisBates, andI. nevermanniLiebke. Two lineages are represented by species whose ranges extend northward from South America:I. costulataChaudoir andI. boyeri(Solier).

Primarily a taxonomic review of the West Indian elements of the selenophorine Harpalini, this paper includes a classification, a key, descriptions and illustrations of taxa, re-rankings, and new synonymies. In total, 45 species and subspecies are treated, six of which are described as new. A new genus and new species are as follows, with type localities in parentheses: Paraulacoryssus gen. n., (type species Selenophorus puertoricensis Mutchler, 1934); Neodiachipteryx davidsoni sp. n., (Zamba, Dominican Republic); Selenophorus spinosus sp. n., seriatoporus species group (Benjamin Constant, state of Amazonas, Brazil); Selenophorus obtusoides sp. n., parumpunctatus species group (near Soroa, Pinar del Rio Province, Cuba); Selenophorus iviei sp. n., nonseriatus species group (Big River, Montserrat, 16°45.719N', 62°11.335W'); Selenophorus irec sp. n., nonseriatus species group (Vernou, Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles); and Selenophorus fabricii sp. n., opalinus species group (Cabo Rojo, Pedernales Province, Dominican Republic). This last species was misidentified as Selenophorus integer (Fabricius). In turn, that species was misidentified as Selenophorus chalybeus Dejean. Selenophorus chalybeus Dejean is a junior synonym of Selenophorus integer Fabricius, syn. n.; and Isopleurus macleayi Kirby is a junior synonym of Selenophorus pyritosus Dejean, syn. n.Biogeographically, log of land area plotted against log of number of species shows that the equilibrium theory of biogeography applies to the West Indian selenophorine fauna.Taxonomically, the selenophorine taxa of the West Indies are arranged in eight genera. The 30 species/subspecies of Selenophorus (sensu stricto) are arranged in 10 species groups. Geographically, the major sources of the selenophorines are the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles. The West Indian islands probably have been invaded by 26 taxa. Of the currently extant taxa, 11 are classified as immigrant, meaning that they are represented both in the islands and on the mainland (South America or Middle America and southern Florida). Thirty three taxa are classified as precinctive, meaning that they originated where they are now living, the implication being that they have descended from immigrants, thus older in the islands than the current-day immigrants.It is postulated that the West Indian taxa represent three age groups: oldest, ancestors having reached the proto-Antilles by a landspan known as GAARlandia; a middle-age group (Neogene period), their ancestors having reached the islands by dispersal over water, between islands; and a young group of extant taxa, no older than the Pleistocene, also having reached the islands over water.

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Lucilia (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is a genus of blowflies comprised largely of saprophagous and facultative parasites of livestock. Lucilia bufonivora, however, exhibits a unique form of obligate parasitism of amphibians, typically affecting wild hosts. The evolutionary route by which amphibian myiasis arose, however, is not well understood due to the low phylogenetic resolution in existing nuclear DNA phylogenies. Furthermore, the timing of when specificity for amphibian hosts arose in L. bufonivora is also unknown. In addition, this species was recently reported for the first time in North America (Canada) and, to date, no molecular studies have analysed the evolutionary relationships between individuals from Eastern and Western hemispheres. To provide broader insights into the evolution of the amphibian parasitic life history trait and to estimate when the trait first arose, a time-scaled phylogeny was inferred from a concatenated data set comprising mtDNA, nDNA and non-coding rDNA (COX1, per and ITS2 respectively). Specimens from Canada, the UK, Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany were analysed, as well as individuals from its sister taxa, the saprophage Lucilia silvarum and a Nearctic species also implicated in amphibian myiasis, Lucilia elongata. Obligate amphibian parasitism appears to have arisen ~4 mya, likely as a result of niche displacement of a saprophagous/facultative parasite ancestor. Consistent paraphyly of L. bufonivora with respect to L. elongata across single-gene phylogenies and high mtDNA genetic distances between Nearctic and Palearctic individuals suggest on-going cryptic speciation facilitated by geographical isolation. These findings suggest that recent reports of L. bufonivora in the Nearctic do not constitute a recent introduction, but instead suggest that it remained unrecorded due to taxonomic confusion and low abundance. This is the first study to confirm the involvement of L. bufonivora in amphibian myiasis in Canada using DNA-based identification methods.

A taxonomic review of the tribe Melaenini (sensu novo), this paper includes a classification, keys at all taxonomic levels, descriptions (tribe to species), re-rankings, and new synonymy. In total, two genera and 22 species (three of which are new) are treated. Arrangement of taxa is in the following sequence, with junior synonyms and type localities of new species in parentheses, following name of the taxon. The Eastern Hemisphere genus Melaenus Dejean, 1831 includes M. piger (Fabricius, 1801), and M. elegans Dejean, 1831 (with M. elongatus Chaudoir, 1843, as a new junior synonym), which exhibits marked dimorphism in East Africa. The genus Cymbionotum Baudi di Selve, 1864 includes 20 species, arranged in two subgenera, as follows. The Western Hemisphere Procoscinia, n. subg. (type species, C. fernandezi, n. sp. [Zambrano, Bolivar, Colombia]), includes the type species and C. negrei Perrault, 1994. The Eastern Hemisphere subgenus Cymbionotum (sensu stricto) includes 18 species in three species groups, and three superspecies. The basale species group includes two species: C. semirubricum (Reitter, 1914) (new junior synonyms Graniger aethiopicus Alluaud, 1923, C. minax Andrewes, 1935, and C. a. airense Basilewsky, 1950), and C. basale (Dejean, 1831). The semelederi species group includes three species: C. semelederi (Chaudoir, 1851) (new junior synonyms, Coscinia funerula Fairmaire, 1885, Cymbionotum luniferum Andrewes 1935, and Graniger houskai Jedli…ka, 1951), C. striatum Reitter, 1894, and C. mandli Jedli…ka, 1963.