British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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~Tipulidae.
Adult insects. Slender-bodied; stilt-legged. The legs readily shed (?). Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’. Ocelli absent. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping (short, with the terminal segment not noticeably longer than the preceding one). Thorax with the dorsal suture continuous across the middle. The dorsal suture deeply V-shaped. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa not extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1, or distally forked, to join both the costa and vein 1. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Vein 7 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae aquatic, or terrestrial; phytophagous, or saprophagous, or mycophagous, or predatory; eucephalic. Pupa without a puparium.
Comments. Gnat-like insects, which dance in swarms in damp situations around sunset and sunrise. Most rest with the wings folded one over the other along the body, by contrast with most tipulines.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Tipulomorpha; Superfamily Tipuloidea.
British representation. Genera about 49; 212 species. E.g., Epiphragma ocellare (Ocellated Gnat); Geranomyia unicolor (Tipulidae: Long-lipped Crane-fly); Molophilus ater (Short-winged Mountain Gnat); Molophilus obscurus (Short-legged Crane-fly).
Illustrations. • Erioptera, Hexatoma, Ormosia (From Walker). • Dicranomyia, Euphylidorea, Geranomyia, Helius, Neolimnomyia, Paradelphomyia, Philidorea, Rhipidia, Simplecta (from Walker). • Epiphragma ocellare (Ocellated Gnat: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (detail: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (dissections: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (B. Ent. 050, legend+text. • Epiphragma ocellare (B. Ent. 050, text cont.. • Geranomyia unicolor (Long-lipped Crane-fly: B. Ent. 573). • Molophilus ater (Original generic description. Short-winged Mountain Gnat: B. Ent. 444). • Molophilus ater (B. Ent. 444, legend+text). • Molophilus ater (B. Ent. 444, text cont.). • Molophilus obscurus (Short-legged Crane-fly: B. Ent.557).
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’.
