''Brachyanax'' is a genus of

bee fly The Bombyliidae are a family of flies, commonly known as bee flies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae are mostly parasitoids of other insects. Overview The Bombyliidae are a large family of fl ...

in the subfamily

Anthracinae Anthracinae is a subfamily of bee flies in the family Bombyliidae. There are more than 80 genera and 2,000 described species in Anthracinae. Genera *'' Anthrax'' Scopoli, 1763 *'' Aphoebantus'' Loew, 1872 *'' Astrophanes'' Osten Sacken, 188 ...

. It was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

Neal Evenhuis Neal Luit Evenhuis (born Kornelus Luit Evenhuis on 16 April 1952;) is an American entomologist. He works at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. Evenhuis has described over 500 species of insects since 1976, and is known both for his research and pecul ...

in 1981. Thirteen species are recognized, and they are found in Asia and Australasia.

Taxonomic history

The American entomologist

created the genus in a 1981 paper in ''

Pacific Insects ''Pacific Insects'' was a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Entomology Department at the Bishop Museum from 1959 to 1982. It was renamed to ''International Journal of Entomology'' in 1983 and discontinued in 1985. It wa ...

''. His initial

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: *Circumscribed circle *Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...

included eleven species. Four species had first been described in the genus ''

Anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

''; Evenhuis described the other seven species in his initial circumscription. Evenhuis and Junichi Yukawa described an additional new species in 1986. Further changes to the list of species in ''Brachyanax'' occurred in 1988 and 1999. The generic name ''Brachyanax'' comes from the Greek (''brakhús''; "small, short") and ('' ánax''; "lord, master, general-in-chief"). The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of the type species, ''thelestrephones'', comes from the Greek (''thēlḗ''; "nipple") and (''stréphō''; "twist"). This led to the American entomologist Arnold Menke including ''Brachyanax thelestrephones'' in his 1993 list "Funny or Curious Zoological Names"; Menke translated the

binomen In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

as "little chief nipple twister". Subsequent discussions of interesting taxonomic names have also included this binomen, using the same translation. The species ''B. thelestrephones'' became recognized as a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''B. satellitius'' in 1999. However, following the

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the ...

, the type species of the genus remains ''Brachyanax thelestrephones''.

Phylogeny

When Evenhuis circumscribed ''Brachyanax'', he wrote this genus was between the tribes

Anthracini Anthracini is a tribe of bee flies in the family Bombyliidae. Genera *''Anthrax'' Scopoli, 1763 *''Brachyanax'' Evenhuis, 1981 *''Dicranoclista'' Bezzi, 1924 *'' Satyramoeba'' Sack, 1909 *'' Spogostylum'' Macquart, 1840 *'' Thraxan'' Yeates ...

and Exoprosopini although more similar to the former. Evenhuis and other dipterists have subsequently continued to place ''Brachyanax'' in Anthracini. The other genera placed in Anthracini are: ''

'', '' Dicranoclista'', '' Satyramoeba'', '' Spogostylum'', '' Thraxan'', '' Turkmeniella'', '' Walkeromyia'', and ''

Xenox ''Xenox'' is a genus of bee flies (insects in the family Bombyliidae). There are five described species in ''Xenox'', all of which parasitize bees in the genus ''Xylocopa'' as larvae. Species * ''Xenox delila'' (Loew, 1869) * ''Xenox habrosus'' ...

''.

Distribution

''Brachyanax'' species are found in the

Australasian Australasian is the adjectival form of Australasia, a geographical region including Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continen ...

Oceanian realm The Oceanian realm is one of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biogeographic realms, and is unique in not including any continental land mass. It has the smallest land area of any of the WWF realms. This realm includes the islands of the Pacific Oc ...

(Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bonin Islands), the

Oriental realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

(Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, India, Malaysia, Singapore, possibly China), and the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

(Japan, possibly China).

Description

RecIndMus Vol II 1909 Plate XII Fig 25 Brachyanax gentilis

Males and females in the genus ''Brachyanax'' are morphologically the same except with respect to genitalia. Their body length is and their wingspan is . The head is either as wide as or narrower than the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

; the abdomen is slightly narrower than the thorax. ''Brachyanax'' species have distinctive antennae: the pedicel, or second segment, is "spherically cone-shaped" and the base of the third segment, or flagellum, is rather enlarged and bulbous. The

wing venation Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to flight, fly. They are found on the second and third Thorax (insect anatomy), thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referre ...

is also distinctive: the radial vein R originates near the r-m crossvein and gently curves 90° to the wing's margin. The radial veins R and R both lack an appendix, or spur-vein, at their base. The anal cell, or cell cup, is closed, typically with a short stalk. The basal portion of the wing is an opaque dark brown; this can cover one-third to four-fifths of each wing's area. The remainder of the wing is colourless and transparent. Its squamae and squamal fringe are brown to dark brown.

Species

In 2015, Evenhuis and D. J. Greathead recognized the following thirteen species in ''Brachyanax'': * '' B. acroleucus'' * '' B. ater'' * '' B. aterrimus'' * '' B. bifuscatipennis'' * '' B. chichijimensis'' * '' B. costalis'' * '' B. gentilis'' * '' B. hemipenthes'' * '' B. leucostigma'' * '' B. magnipennis'' * '' B. papuanus'' * '' B. perniger'' * '' B. satellitius''

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q14677287 Bombyliidae Bombyliidae genera Diptera of Asia Diptera of Australasia