A review of the oriental genus Phycus Walker (Diptera: Therevidae) with descriptions of new species

Seven Oriental species of Phycus Walker are recognized. Two species groups: the atripes species-group and the brunneus species-group are established. The atripes species-group seems paraphyletic and contains five rarely collected species: Phycus angustifrons, sp. nov. (Thailand), Ph. atripes Brunetti, 1920 (Nepal, NE India, and SW China), Ph. hauseri, sp. nov. (Sri Lanka), Ph. minutus, sp. nov. (Sri Lanka), and Ph. bomeoensis, sp. nov. (Sabah). The brunneus species-group contains two Oriental species: Phycus brunneus (Wiedemann, 1824), and Ph. freidbergi, sp. nov. (India: Orissa). Two additional Afrotropical species should also be arranged in this species-group, which is characterized by the elongate scape and the pleural pruinosity, and certainly represents a monophyletic group. Phycus brunneus is represented by three subspecies in the region: Phycus brunneus brunneus (Wiedemann, 1824), = Phycus nifidus van der Wulp, 1897, syn. nov. (India and Sri Lanka), Phycus brunneus obscuripes Krober, 1912, stat. nov., = Phycus brunnipes Brunetti, 1912, syn. nov. (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, and Vietnam), and Phycus brunneus kerteszi Krober, 1912, stat. nov. (Taiwan, ?the Philippines). Phylogenetic implications with regard to character states of holoptism v. dichoptism, frontal pattern, and extension of the ambient vein of the wing are discussed.