Following the phylogenetic analysis of Borkent and Craig (2004),
Lebanoculicoides bloudani sp. n. shares with the monogeneric subfamily
Lebanoculicoidinae (Lebanoculicoides Szadziewski, 1996) the
plesiomorphic character ‘wing with well-developed R4 þ 5’ that is
absent in other Ceratopogonidae, except in Leptoconops (Palaeoconops),
in which this vein is present but less pronounced than in
Lebanoculicoides. Affinities with the genus Leptoconops can be
excluded because of the number of flagellomeres,13 instead of 11e12
in the Leptoconops species; and of the presence of crossvein r-m.
Szadziewski (1996: 30) indicated that Lebanoculicoides ‘has themost
plesiotypic wing venation within the family with a well-developed
vein R4 þ 5 and the radial sector arranged as in some Chironomidae’,
supporting the hypothesis that it forms ‘a sister group to the rest
of biting midges’. Borkent (2000) and Borkent and Craig (2004) also
considered that the plesiomorphic state of character of R4 þ 5 ‘provides
good evidence that’ Lebanoculicoides ‘forms the sister group of
all other Ceratopogonidae, fossil and extant’. However, the inclusion of Lebanoculicoides bloudani in the genus Lebanoculicoides is only
based on plesiomorphies of the wing venation that poorly define this
genus and the subfamily Lebanoculicoidinae.