''Zealantha thorpei'' is a species of fly belonging to the family

Anthomyzidae Anthomyzidae is small, slender, yellow to black flies with narrow and elongated wings, which may have distinct markings. Some species have greatly reduced wings. Fewer than 100 species are known, mostly from Europe. Although they occur in all ma ...

. First described by Jindřich Roháček in 2007, it is endemic to New Zealand and currently the only known member of Anthomyzidae found in the country.

Taxonomy

The species was identified by Czech entomologist Jindřich Roháček in 2007, based on a holotype collected by Stephen E. Thorpe from

Henderson Valley Henderson Valley is a locality in West Auckland, New Zealand. The major road in the locality is Henderson Valley Road, and Scenic Drive is on the western boundary. History The Henderson Valley is in the traditional rohe of Te Kawerau ā Maki ...

Scenic Reserve in West Auckland, New Zealand in December 2006. The earliest known specimen of the species dates to 1971. Thorpe collected the holotype from sedges found on a stream bank. Roháček named the species after Thorpe. ''Zealantha thorpei'' is the only known member of the family

that had been found in New Zealand. ''Zealantha'' is potentially a monotypic genus. ''Zealantha thorpei'' was the only member of the species in the genus until 2021, when another species found in Hokkaido,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, '' Z. fasciolata'', was tentatively placed within ''Zealantha'' by Roháček due to morphological similarities, pending the discovery of males of the species.

Description

Males of ''Z. thorpei'' have a total body length ranging between , while females range between . The species is bicoloured, with the head and thorax being a grey-black colour, and the abdomen and limbs coloured ochre-yellow. The species can be identified by its colours, by having dark velvet-like microtomentum on its head and thorax, and eyes covered in soft hairs.

Distribution and habitat

The species is endemic to New Zealand, found primarily on the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

and the northern

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. Adults tend to be collected from between late November and January, and prefer damp littoral habitats dominated by sedges. Since its initial discovery, the species has been found to occur commonly in suburban Auckland.

References

{{Authority control Insects described in 2007 Anthomyzidae Endemic insects of New Zealand Diptera of New Zealand