Study of the fungus gnats (Diptera: Mycetophilidae) in the Natural History Museum collection

Abstract

The family Mycetophilidae encompasses 233 genera and about 4.500 species known from all biogeographical regions. The Neotropical fauna of the family includes 1120 described species and is possibly the richest in the world, still with a huge hidden diversity. The family has been divided in the subfamilies Sciophilinae, Gnoristinae, Mycomyiinae, Leiinae, Manotinae, Allactoneurinae, Mycetophilinae. The subfamilies Sciophilinae, Gnoristinae, and Leiinae include taxa demonstrated to have austral distribution, i.e. disjunct between Australia, New Zealand, and temperate areas of South America-technically referred to as amphinotic taxa. Knowledge on the relationships between and within these genera, however, is still incipient. As well, these groups would be especially useful for a biogeographical understanding of the biological evolution of the southern end of the global-something still to be done. The Mycetophilidae collection at the Natural History Museum (NHM) is one of the largest in the world, with material from different biogeographical regions, types, non types, and a huge amount of unidentified material. Therefore, this project aims to sort and photograph the Mycetophilidae collection at the NHM, to study in detail the types of the species of genera known from the core geographical area of this study, especially the sciophilines, gnoristines, and leiines genera. (AU)