Redescription and re-evaluation of the Burmese amber psychodid Eophlebotomus connectens Cockerell and its phylogenetic position (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Eophlebotomus is re-examined, with the discovery of important new features and others that were inaccurately described by previous workers. Hennig's scheme deriving the venation of Horaiella from that of Eophlebotomus could equally well have used a trichomyiine or a sycoracine as the starting point and therefore does not specifically support the hypothesis that Horaiella is the sister group. The phlebotomine-like features of Eophlebotomus are plesiomorphies mostly also occurring in Sycoracinae, but there are also several synapomorphies supporting a particular relationship between Eophlebotomus and Sycoracinae or Trichomyiinae or both. It is hypothesized that Eophlebotomus represents a basal offshoot of the lineage leading to Sycoracinae and Trichomyiinae.