New and poorly known Holarctic species of Boletina Staeger, 1840 (Diptera, Mycetophilidae)

Abstract

BackgroundThe genus Boletina is a species rich group of fungus gnats. Members of the genus are mainly known from temperate, boreal and arctic biomes. Phylogeny of the genus is still poorly resolved, dozens of species are insufficiently described and undescribed species are often discovered, especially from samples taken from the boreal zone.New informationFour new species are described. Boletina valteri Salmela sp.n. (Finland), Boletina kullervoi Salmela sp.n. (Finland), B. hyperborea Salmela sp.n. (Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada) and B. nuortti Salmela sp.n. (Finland). Boletina arctica Holmgren is redescribed and reported for the first time from the Canadian high arctic zone. Boletina borealis Zetterstedt and B. birulai Lundström are reported for the first time from Canada. Boletina subnitidula Sasakawa (syn. n.) is proposed as a junior synonym of B. pallidula Edwards.

Molecular phylogeny of the fungus gnat subfamilies Gnoristinae and Mycomyinae, and their position within Mycetophilidae (Diptera)

“…Gnoristinae is one of the most diverse and taxonomically difficult subfamilies of Mycetophilidae, with new species or genera being described almost every year (Niu et al ., ; Ševčík & Hippa, ; Kerr, , ; Ševčík et al ., ; Martinsson & Kjaerandsen, ; Kallweit, ; Salmela et al ., ). It is composed of over 440 species in approximately 29 extant genera.…”

New and poorly known Palaearctic fungus gnats (Diptera, Sciaroidea)

“…Borkent and Wheeler 2012, Kurina and Hippa 2015). In Europe fungus gnats probably display an anomalous gradient of species richness, that is, the number of species correlates positively with latitude (Salmela et al 2016). The northern boreal zone is probably the hot-spot of fungus gnat species richness (Kjærandsen et al 2007), and the Fennoscandian peninsula (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Kola peninsula and Russian Karelia) in total harbours about 1000 species, of which ca.…”

“…Sciophila larvae are mostly associated with fungal fruiting bodies, especially polypores, and most likely are spore-feeding (Jakovlev 2011) or may develop internally in fungus tissue (Zaitzev 1982). Three Boletina species are figured here and discussed; a review on the taxonomic status and ecology of the Holarctic species of the genus was recently provided (Salmela et al 2016). The genus Phronia is rich in species, having 112 and 97 named taxa in the Holarctic and Palaearctic regions, respectively (Gagné 1975, Jakovlev and Polevoi 2009, Ševčík 2009, Pape and Thompson 2013).…”

New taxonomic and faunistic records of fungus gnats (Insecta, Diptera) from Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia

“…Phylogeny and natural classification of the genus are still unresolved (Martinsson et al 2011), and new species are regularly found, especially from the boreal zone (Salmela et al 2016). However, in a phylogenetic assessment based on molecular characters, the Boletina trivittata-group (consisting of B. trivittata and B. subtrivittata Zaitzev, 1994) formed a monophyletic clade (Martinsson et al 2011).…”

“…obs.). Immature stages of B. joosti are unknown, but B. trivittata has been reared from rotting wood and soil litter; Boletina larvae are seldom found from fungal fruiting bodies (see Salmela et al 2016 for a review). Boletina joosti is probably a very rare species, perhaps having a restricted and fragmented Central European range in mountainous areas.…”