Hexatoma crane flies (Diptera, Limoniidae) of Korea

Abstract

Hexatoma Latreille, 1809 is a large genus of short-palped crane flies with a worldwide distribution. Accounting for more than 60 percent of global species, 362 extant species occur in Asia. Prior to our study, Hexatoma crane flies on the Korean Peninsula (both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea) had been studied for 90 years starting in 1930, but only three species had been recorded, with one of them being a misidentification. This study adds six species to the fauna of the Korean Peninsula, all of which belong to the subgenus H. (Eriocera) Macquart, 1838. General information on genus and subgenus morphological characters is presented in this paper, with a redescription of each species based on Korean specimens, as well as illustrations of both sexes, the elevation range, the period of activity, habitat information, general distribution, and a distribution map for the Korean Peninsula. Three species H. (E.) ilwola Podenas, sp. nov., H. (E.) pianigra Podenas, sp. nov. and H. (E.) serenensis Podenas, sp. nov. are described as new to science. Hexatoma (E.) lygropis (Alexander, 1920) is deleted from the Korean species list as a misidentification. This publication is a continuation of our previous work on short-palped crane flies (Limoniidae) from Korea.

A crane fly of the genus Gynoplistia Macquart (Diptera, Limoniidae) from the early Miocene of New Zealand

“… Hexatoma is currently divided into six subgenera ( Podenas et al 2022 ). The new fossil would fall in the subgenus Eriocera Macquart, 1838 because of the following characters: radial sector with three branches, medial cell distal, supernumerary crossveins missing in cells r3, r4, and r5, vein Sc reaching wing margin beyond Rs branching point, R 2 beyond fork of R 3 and R 4 ( Podenas et al 2022 ).…”

Immature Stages of Genus Hexatoma (Diptera, Limoniidae) in the Korean Peninsula

“…Partly because of that, identification usually was based on coloration rather than structures of the male terminalia, which are rather simple compared to other crane flies. Only recently was attention paid to the inner structures, such as the aedeagal complex, which has distinctive species-specific characteristics [2]. The first immatures of the genus Hexatoma were described by Alexander [3], and only the larval stages of two subgenera, Eriocera and Hexatoma, are known to date.…”

“…Hexatoma larvae are a common group in aquatic habitats on the Korean Peninsula, and a recent taxonomic study revealed that eight Hexatoma species belonging to only one subgenus, Eriocera, reside in the peninsula [2]. As many as five of them are probably endemic to the Korean Peninsula: H. (E.) serenensis Podenas, 2022 is known only from the northern part of the peninsula; H. (E.) pianigra Podenas, 2022 and H. (E.) masaki Alexander, 1924, is known only from the southern part of the peninsula; and H. (E.) ilwola Podenas, 2022 and H. (E.) pernigrina (Alexander, 1938) have been recorded from both the southern and northern parts.…”