''Falbouria'' is a genus of

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

in the family

Dolichopodidae Dolichopodidae, the long-legged flies, are a large, cosmopolitan family of true flies with more than 8,000 described species in about 250 genera. The genus '' Dolichopus'' is the most speciose, with some 600 species. Dolichopodidae generally a ...

. It contains only one species, ''Falbouria acorensis'', which is endemic to the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. The genus was originally named ''Balfouria'' by

Octave Parent Abbé Octave Parent (15 June 1882, in Trescault – 9 February 1942, in Ambleteuse) was a French entomologist who specialized in Diptera, mostly the family Dolichopodidae. He became director of the Biological Station, Ambleteuse. He published thr ...

in 1933; it was renamed to ''Falbouria'' by C. E. Dyte in 1980, after the name ''Balfouria'' was found to be preoccupied by the snail genus '' Balfouria'' Crosse, 1884.

Systematic position

The genus ''Falbouria'' was placed in the tribe Argyrini by Maslova and Negrobov (1996). Later, on re-describing the type species of the genus, Capellari and Amorim (2012) found the genus shares some features with ''

Achradocera ''Achradocera'' is a genus of flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It is distributed in the Nearctic and Neotropical realms as well as in Polynesia. Several Afrotropical species were also placed in the genus, but in 2018 they were transferred to '' ...

'', '' Chrysotus'', and ''

Lyroneurus ''Lyroneurus'' is a genus of fly, flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It includes 17 species distributed in the Neotropical realm. It was formerly treated as a subgenus of ''Diaphorus''; more recently ''Lyroneurus'' has been treated as a synonym ...

'', so they place it in Diaphorini instead. ''Falbouria'' is placed close to '' Chrysotus'' by these authors, but is kept as a separate genus rather than becoming a synonym of ''Chrysotus'' (which is itself

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

Distribution

''Falbouria acorensis'' is an

endemic species Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Azores. It is known to be present on

São Miguel Island São Miguel Island (; ), nicknamed "The Green Island" (), is the largest and most populous island in the Portugal, Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, with 45,000 people residing in Ponta D ...

. It was historically also recorded from

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

, Faial,

Pico Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribe ...

and São Jorge islands, though no recent information on the species exists for these islands.

References

Diaphorinae Dolichopodidae genera Monotypic Brachycera genera Endemic arthropods of the Azores {{Dolichopodidae-stub