Contribution to the knowledge of male and female eremochaetid flies in the late Cretaceous amber of Burma (Diptera, Brachycera, Eremochaetidae)

Abstract

A new and a previously known species of the genus Zhenia Q. Zhang, 2016 (Eremochaetidae) are illustrated and described based on two males and a female in amber: Zhenia burmensis sp. nov. and Z. xiai Q. Zhang, 2016. The male Z. xiai is the first male of this species recorded. The relationships of Archisargoidea (including Eremochaetidae, Zhenia) are reassessed based on male genitalia. The superfamily is more likely related to the Stratiomyomorpha than to the Muscomorpha (including Nemestrinoidea). The components and structures of the ovipositor are re-illustrated. The results of our comparative study demonstrate that the ovipositor of Zhenia is similar in shape and detail to that of Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh, 1867) (Tephritidae). This study concludes that the ovipositor of Zhenia is most likely formed from abdominal eighth and ninth segments instead of the cerci, as a previous study found.