Genus Neodartus Melichar
Neodartus scutellatus Distant from India.
Genus Neodartus Melichar 1903: 162. Type species: Neodartus acocephaloides Melichar (Sri Lanka), by monotypy
Synonym: Vulturnellus Evans 1966. Type species: Vulturnellus shephardi Evans, by original designation
Known species: A number of species are known from Africa, Madagascar, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines but only N. shephardi from NSW is recorded from Australia.
Comments: Evans (1972a) noted that four other Australian species had erroneously been referred to this genus by Evans (1955, 1966) but they were transfered to the new genus Tolasella by Evans (1972). In that same work, Evans (1972a) also synonymised the genus Vulturnellus with Neodartus but did not mention any included species. In 1977, he noted that, since Vulturnellus had been shown to be a synonym of Neodartus by Evans (1972a), the only species in Vulturnellus, V. shephardi was now Neodartus shephardi (Evans). This remains the only Australian representative of the genus.
The species of Neodartus can be identified through the marginal position of the ocelli on the crown whereas in other genera with expansive crowns, the ocelli are remote from the margin.