British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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Adult insects. Very small (about 3 mm long); winged. Antennae 2 segmented (the first hidden?), or 3 segmented (the apical segment small, squarish in profile); ‘modified’. Antennae aristate; the bristle dorsal (almost bare). The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Post-vertical orbital bristles present; divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae present (these strong). Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell short. The costa with one break (close to the junction of the upper margin of vein 1). Sub-costa apparent; joining vein 1 more or less where it joins the costa, or terminating blind (fading apically). Vein 6 present; falling short of the wing margin (but not by far). Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent. Tibiae with a dorsal pre-apical bristle (but this short), or without a dorsal pre-apical bristle. Hind tibiae without strong bristles in the basal 4/5. Neither parasitic nor predatory (attracted to exudates from tree wounds).
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; mycophagous (e.g., recorded from Polyporus fruiting bodies); acephalic. Pupa enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Flies with short, thick, yellow-and-brown banded legs; with dark patches at the end of wing vein 1 and on the cross vein closing the 1st basal cell. Tibia without, or with only short dorsal preapical bristles, by contrast with Drosophilidae.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Opomyzoidea.
British representation: Genera 1; 7 species.
Illustrations: • Odinia.
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’.
