Originally described in German from a single male collected by L. Conradt between 23 November and 2 December 1892 from Bismarckburg in Togo. This specimen was described as the species Lulodes seriatopunctatus Enderlein, 1924, now known to be distributed from east Africa across the Zaire basin to Ghana and Togo. No illustration accompanied the original description.
Bismarckburg does not appear on modern maps, but it is on earlier German maps (Stieler, 1923). The name of the town has changed and is probably Brewanaise [08°12'N 00°47'E, 710m] on the border with Ghana.
The second known species, Lulodes asteropterus was described by Frey in 1932 in the genus Euthyplatystoma Hendel, 1914 and moved to Lulodes by Steyskal in 1980. Although there was no illustration published with the original description for Lulodes asteropterus, Frey did publish a black and white photograph (Plate VI, figure 16) of the right wing of Euthyplatystoma nitidium Frey, 1932, which is a junior subjective synonym of Lulodes seriatopunctatus Enderlein, 1924 (synonymy by Steyskal, 1980). Lulodes asteropterus (Frey, 1932) was described from a single female specimen collected by T.F.G. Meyer in November 1910 at Oshogbo [07°46′N 04°34′E] in Nigeria. More recent specimens are also known from Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nothing is published of the biology of these flies.
References:
Enderlein, G. 1924. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Platystominen. Mitteilungen aus dem zoologischen Museum in Berlin. 11: 99-153.
Frey, R. 1932. On African Platystomatidae (Diptera). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 10, 9: 242-264.
Hendel, F. 1914a. Diptera Fam. Muscaridae Subfam. Platystominae. Genera Insectorum 157: 1 - 179. [precedence over Hendel, 1914b according to date: see McAlpine, D.K., 1994: 118 - 119].
Hendel, F., 1914b. Die Arten der Platystominen. -- Abhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 8(1): 1-409.
Steyskal, G.C. 1980. 43. Family Platystomatidae. In: Crosskey, R.W., ed., Catalogue of the Diptera of the Afrotropical Region. London: British Museum (Natural History), pp. 563–574.
Stieler, A. 1923. Stieler's Atlas of Modern Geography, 9th Edition. Justus Perthes, Gotha.
Head with upper orbital setae strongly reduced, vestigial and difficult to discern;
Thorax without katepisternal setae;
Wing with r–m and dm–m crossveins separated by more than length of r–m;
Wing cell dm large, rectangular, dominating the central wing membrane; basal radial cell (br) narrow and distorted;
Wing membrane with blister-like hyaline maculae, most evident in basal cells; vertex not noticeably sunken