Rhipidia Meigen 1818

Rhipidia Meigen, 1818

Rhipidia Meigen, 1818: 153; Lackschewitz, Pagast, 1940: 4; 1942: 53; Savchenko, Krivolutskaya, 1976: 118; Savchenko, 1983: 109; 1985: 51; 1989: 340;

Ceratostephanus Brunetti, 1911: 271;

Limonia (Rhipidia) Edwards, 1938: 23; Alexander, 1950: 195; Ishida, 1957: 125; Tjeder, 1958: 161;

Type species— Rhipidia maculata Meigen, 1818 (monotypic).

Medium sized crane flies. Wing length varies from 5 to nearly 9 mm. Main body coloration yellowish, brown or gray. The most distinct feature are pectinate male antennae and serrate female antennae of most species. Wing comparatively wide and distinctly patterned with at least few dark spots at frontal margin, usually with lots of small dots. Vein Sc1 reaches beyond base of radial sector, usually up to the middle of Rs; Sc2 at tip of Sc1, cell sc usually with additional cross-vein at the middle; radial sector long and arched, only in rare cases some specimens have angulated and short-spurred base of Rs, discal cell closed in R. (Rhipidia) and open in R. (Eurhipidia). Basal deflection of CuA1 close to branching point of M (base of discal cell); anal angle distinct, posterior margin widely rounded. Male genitalia with two pairs of terminal gonostyles. Inner gonostylus large, oval with longer or shorter rostral prolongation, that is armed with few spines. Outer gonostylus strongly sclerotised, long, narrow and arched. Ovipositor with long slightly arched cercus and large hypovalva.

Preimaginal stages are known only for three species, all of them belong to subgenus R. (Rhipidia).

Genus Rhipidia includes 232 extant species, which are grouped into two subgenera (Oosterbroek, 2016) and six fossil species (Evenhuis, 2014). It has a worldwide distribution with highest diversity in Neotropics (Oosterbroek, 2016).