British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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March-flies.
Adult insects. Small; slender-bodied to robustly-built; not stilt-legged. Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’ (short and thick, usually shorter than the thorax). Antennae not aristate. Ocelli present; 3. Eyes meeting above the antennae (often, in males), or not meeting. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Vibrissae absent. Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa extending around the entire wing, or not extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind. The leading edge veins markedly stronger than the rest. Vein 7 present; falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent. Tibiae spurred (Front tibiae with apical large, strong spurs or circlets of spines). Feet with a triple pad beneath the tarsal claws, or without a triple pad (?). Neither parasitic nor predatory (pollinators).
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; phytophagous, or saprophagous (in decaying vegetation, in soil); eucephalic. Pupa without a puparium.
Comments. Usually dark, hairy flies, “of rather grotesque appearance”.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Bibionomorpha; Superfamily Bibionoidea.
British representation. Genera 2; 20 species. E.g., Bibio venosus (Veined Crane-fly).
Illustrations. • Bibio venosus (Veined Crane-fly: B. Ent. 138). • Bibio venosus (detail: B. Ent. 138). • Bibio venosus (dissections: B. Ent. 138). • Bibio venosus (B. Ent. 138, legend+text). • Bibio venosus (B. Ent. 138, text cont.). • Dilophus febrilis (from Walker). • Bibio marci (from Walker).
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Diptera. Version: 18th September 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
