A review of the Archiceroptera Papp genus complex (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae)

This thesis has two parts. The first part investigates the relationships between the Archiceroptera genus complex and other members of the Limosininae (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae). A focus is placed on the relationships within the larger epandrial process group, which contains Bitheca, Bromeloecia, Pterogramma, Aptilotella, and Robustagramma, along with Archiceroptera, Rudolfina and several previously unplaced species groups. Molecular and morphological data sets provide the first phylogeny of the group, and were used to support the inclusion of several unplaced species groups within Rudolfina and Archiceroptera, while one new genus is described. Pectinosina gen. nov. includes two species: P. prominens (Duda), previously placed in Rudolfina, and P. carro n. sp. The second part of the thesis deals with revisions of Archiceroptera Papp and Rudolfina Roháček. Rudolfina now includes 13 described species, nine of which are newly described here (R. bucki, R. exuberata, R. howdeni, R. megepandria, R. pauca, R. pilosa, R. newtoni, R. remiforma, and R. tumida). Archiceroptera now includes 29 species, of which 27 are newly described here (A. adamas, A. addenda, A. barberi, A. basilia, A. bilobata, A. bisetosus, A. braziliensis, A. brevivilla, A. browni, A. caliga, A. calligraphia, A. cobolorum, A. crenulata, A. curvivilla, A. dolabra, A. llama, A. maniba, A. masoni, A. megacercus, A. megavilla, A. mexicorona, A. mitarakai, A. paracercus, A. pussula, A. ternum, A. triclavus, and A. uncinata). Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant provided to Dr. S.A. Marshall and a PGS-D NSERC grant provided to S.M. Paiero