| abstract | Redescriptions of Crotonia cophinarius (Mich., 1908) and of C. unguifera (Mich., 1908) are based on the original collections in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), and lectotypes are designated. A number of other species belonging to this genus are also described, namely C. chiloensis n.sp. and C. flagellata (Balogh & Csiszár) from Chile, C. lanceolata n.sp. and C. brassicae n.sp. from St. Helena, and C. melanesiae n.sp. from the New Hebrides. The genus is distinguished from the related Holonothrus mainly by the deficient character of the notogastral chaetotaxy and the development of setal apophyses. Comparisons between ten species presently assigned to the genus Crotonia suggest that two distinct morphological groupings, designated the cophinarius and unguifera groups respectively, may be recognized. The zoogeographical distribution of both of these groupings is discontinuous, but may represent a relic of an earlier, mor extensive, continuous pattern. |