British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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Fungivoridae.
Fungus-gnats.
Adult insects. Slender-bodied; stilt-legged. Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’ (long, threadlike). Antennae not aristate. Ocelli present; 3. Eyes not meeting. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Wings without 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 (e.g., Orfelia), or terminating blind (e.g., Mycetophila). The leading edge veins markedly stronger than the rest. Vein 7 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned. Tibiae spurred (with a pair of apical spurs on all tibiae). Feet without a triple pad. Abdomen constricted basally.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; mostly mycophagous (either inside the fruiting bodies, or externally in webs or mucilaginous tubes); eucephalic. Pupa without a puparium.
Comments. Delicate, humped-backed flies. Head overhung by the humped thorax. Anterior wing venation heavier than posterior. Males sometimes congregating in dancing swarms.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Bibionomorpha; Superfamily Sciaroidea.
British representation: Genera 57; 452 species.
Illustrations: • 12 genera (Walker). • Leia bimaculata (Walker). • Leptomorphus walkeri Curtis (Original genus and species descriptions. Southgate Crane-fly: B. Ent. 365). • Leptomorphus walkeri (detail: B. Ent. 365). • Leptomorphus walkeri (dissections: B. Ent. 365). • Leptomorphus walkeri (legend+text: B. Ent. 365). • Leptomorphus walkeri (text, cont.: B. Ent. 365). • Details of Leptomorphus walkeri (from Walker). • Orfelia nemoralis (Yellow-legged Fungus-gnat: B. Ent. 134).
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: 9th June 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
