Mutabilis Group

The mutabilis group is equivalent to the subgenus Pseudoculicoides sensu Dominiak (2012) in part, except for a few species that she included in that subgenus, such as the Holarctic D. corinneae, both sexes of which have a differently shaped frontal sclerite, as well as different male genitalia and female subgenital plate that we include in the leptobranchia group (see above). Species in the mutabilis group are small to very small and have an elliptical frontal sclerite, but lack the two lower marginal ear-like lobes of most species in the leptobranchia group. Males have an aedeagus with a posteromedian projection and posterolateral arms that are divided or sometimes single, gonocoxal apodemes and paramere are usually asymmetrical, and have well developed conical or elongate cylindrical apicolateral processes. Females with a circular to ovoid subgenital plate with a central lumen and a spherical to ovoid spermatheca.