Book Description

This revision comprehensively documents species of the shore-fly genus Hydrochasma Hendel, which is one of three genera of the shore-fly tribe Discocerinini (subfamily Gymnomyzinae) that occurs exclusively in the New World. The other two genera are Pectinifer Cresson and Facitrichophora Mathis & Zatwarnicki. All known species of Hydrochasma are described with an em-phasis on structures of the male terminalia, which are fully de-scribed and illustrated. In addition, detailed locality data and dis-tribution maps for all species are provided. Among New World genera of Discocerinini, Hydrochasma is perhaps the least well known, as indicated by the dramatic increase in recognized species reported in this revision. Before this revision, Hydrochasma included just seven species, and herein we more than quadruple that number by adding 27 previously undescribed species. These additions bring the total number of congeners to 34. Much of this increase has resulted from a greatly improved sampling of the New World fauna, documenting the ongoing need for field work and better taxon sampling of the earth?s shore-fly fauna. With clarification of species ? how they can be recognized and where they occur ? we hope that additional research on immature stages and other aspects of their natural history and ecol-ogy will be fostered and facilitated.