A high-quality draft genome for Proctacanthus coquilletti (Insecta: Diptera: Asilidae) is presented along with transcriptomes for 16 Diptera species from five families: Asilidae, Apioceridae, Bombyliidae, Mydidae, and Tabanidae. Genome sequencing reveals that P. coquilletti has a genome size of approximately 210 Mbp and remarkably low heterozygosity (0.47%) and few repeats (15%). These characteristics helped produce a highly contiguous (N50 = 862 kbp) assembly, particularly given that only a single 2 × 250 bp PCR-free Illumina library was sequenced. A phylogenomic hypothesis is presented based on thousands of putative orthologs across the 16 transcriptomes. Phylogenetic relationships support the sister group relationship of Apioceridae + Mydidae to Asilidae. A time-calibrated phylogeny is also presented, with seven fossil calibration points, which suggests an older age of the split among Apioceridae, Asilidae, and Mydidae (158 mya) and Apioceridae and Mydidae (135 mya) than proposed in the AToL FlyTree project. Future studies will be able to take advantage of the resources presented here in order to produce large scale phylogenomic and evolutionary studies of assassin fly phylogeny, life histories, or venom. The bioinformatics tools and workflow presented here will be useful to others wishing to generate de novo genomic resources in species-rich taxa without a closely-related reference genome.

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Here we revise description of the Neotropical genus Stibasoma Schiner (Diachlorini – Tabaninae), including redescription of 15 species that range from Mexico to northern Argentina: S. apicimacula Fairchild, S. aureoguttatum Kröber, S. bella Limeira de Oliveira & Rafael, S. bicolor Bigot, S. chionostigma (Osten Sacken), S. currani Philip, S. festivum (Wiedemann), S. flaviventre (Macquart), S. fulvohirtum (Wiedemann), S. giganteum (Lutz), S. leucopleurale Barretto, S. lutzi Barretto, S. panamensis Curran, S. theotaenia (Wiedemann) and S. willistoni Lutz. The taxon S. bifenestratum Philip is revalidated. Two new species are described from the Amazon: S. manauensis sp. nov. and S. ruthae sp. nov. Previously unknown males are described in S. bifenestratum, S. currani, S. festivum and S. fulvohirtum. Two subspecies are not recognised: S. festivum dyridophorum and S. flaviventre pulla. A dichotomous identification key based on external morphological characters is provided.

Here I revise the Neotropical genus Rhabdotylus Lutz, 1913 (Tabaninae: Diachlorini), including redescription of three species that range from Guatemala to Argentina: Rhabdotylusrubrum (Thunberg, 1827), Rhabdotylusvenenatum (Osten Sacken, 1886), and Rhabdotylusviridiventris (Macquart, 1838). Rhabdotylusplaniventris (Wiedemann, 1828) is established as a junior synonym of R.rubrum, syn. nov. A dichotomous identification key based on external morphological characters is provided.