Systematics and biogeography of Polietina Schnabl & Dziedzicki (Diptera, Muscidae):: Neotropical area relationships and Amazonia as a composite area

The genus Polietina Schnabl & Dziedzicki, 1911 (Diptera, Muscidae) groups 15 species distributed throughout the Neotropical region. Here, generic and specific diagnoses and a species identification key are provided, with cladistic and biogeographical analyses performed and results discussed. In the cladistic analysis, the application of equal, successive and implied character weighting schemes resulted in the single cladogram ((P. flavidicincta (P. rubella (P. concinna (P. orbitalis, P. wulpi)))) (P. steini ((P. flavithorax, P. major) (P. nigra, P. prima) (P. bicolor, P. minor, P. univittata)))). In the biogeographical analysis, the Brooks parsimony analysis was performed by experimenting several combinations of areas of endemism proposed previously in the literature, and one area cladogram ((Caribbean, north-west Amazonia) (south-east Amazonia (Chacoan, Parana))) favours a previously proposed hypothesis of a composite history for Amazonia.