Two new species of snow fly Chionea from Italian Alps (Diptera: Limoniidae).

The snow crane flies belonging to the genus Chionea (Diptera, Limoniidae) have a Holarctic distribution, with 17 Palaearctic and 18 Neartic species. In this paper two new species of snow flies, Chionea olympiae and Chionea dolomitana, are described from specimens collected in the Alps.
The description of C. olympiae is based on males from northwestern Italy, collected in a mountainous area belonging to the ercinic massif of Mount Rosa. The description of the second species, C. dolomitana, is based on specimens from northeastern Italy, collected in the Dolomites and Venetian Pre-Alps in an altitudinal range between 1000 and 2500 m. Chionea araneoides previously thought to occur throughout the Alps, seems not to occur in the southeastern Alps