Species groups of Oriental Ptecticus Loew including descriptions of ten new species with a revised identification key to the Oriental species (Diptera: Stratiomyidae)
The species of Oriental Ptecticus are reviewed and ten species are described: P. artocarpophilus sp. nov. from the Philippines; P. bannapensis sp. nov., P. kubani sp. nov. and P. subaurifer sp. nov. from Laos; P. elegans sp. nov. and P. semimetallicus sp. nov. from Nepal; P. fukienensis sp. nov. from southern China; P. indicus sp. nov. from India; and P. infuscatus sp. nov. and P. sarawakensis sp. nov. from Borneo. Five new synonymies are proposed: P. minimus Rozkošný & Kovac, 1997 is a junior synononym of P. shirakii Nagatomi, 1975; P okinawae James, 1950 is a junior synonym of P. aurifer (Walker, 1854); P. tenebrifer (Walker, 1849) is a junior synonym of P. japonicus (Thunberg, 1789); P. wulpii Brunetti, 1907 is a junior synonym of P. melanurus (Walker, 1848), and P. zhejiangensis D. Yang & C. Yang, 1995 is a junior synonym of P. kerteszi de Meijere, 1924. Eight species groups for the Oriental Ptecticus species are defined: aurifer group (6 spp.), australis group (9 spp.), cingulatus group (11 spp.), histrio group (7 spp.), longipennis group (6 spp.), shirakii group (1 sp.), japonicus group (4 spp.), tricolor group (3 spp.) and 5 species remain unplaced. A new identification key to the Oriental Ptecticus species, including references to the published figures of distinguishing characters and basic distributional data, is given.