British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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Carrot Rust Fly, etc.
Adult insects. Small to medium-sized; slender-bodied to robustly-built; not stilt-legged. Antennae 3 segmented (third segment short and rounded to long and thin); ‘modified’. Antennae aristate; the bristle dorsal (not plumose). The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Post-vertical orbital bristles present, or absent; when present, divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae absent. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Hypopleural bristles absent. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell short. The costa with one break (before the end of R1). Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind (i.e., vestigial distally, being represented there by a right-angled upward bend to the costal break manifested as a whitish or transparent streak). The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 6 present; falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent. Tibiae without a dorsal pre-apical bristle. Hind tibiae without strong bristles in the basal 4/5. Abdomen constricted basally (e.g., the black-and-red, Ichneumon-like Loxocera), or not constricted basally.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; phytophagous (including the Carrot-fly, which notoriously damages various root crops); acephalic. Pupa enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Small to quite large flies of varied form. Wings with an apparent cross fold, running from the break in the costa across the end of the second basal and anal cells to the hind margin.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Diopsoidea.
British representation: Genera 5; 26 species.
Illustrations: • Chyliza extenuata (from Walker). • Psila fimetaria (from Walker). • Loxocera albiseta (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: 9th June 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
