| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Canaceidae
Adult insects. Antennae 3 segmented; ‘modified’; aristate; the arista dorsal. The second antennal segment not grooved. The second antennal segment when viewed from the outside normal, with no extension over the third. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Eyes rounded, well separated. Post-vertical orbital bristles present (small); divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae present, or absent (usually weak, or inserted behind the vibrissal angle). Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wing venation complete, in the sense of exhibiting 1st and 2nd basal, anal and discal cells. Wings with a discal cell; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell very short. The costa with one break (near where the upper margin of vein 1 merges). Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1, or joining vein 1 more or less where it joins the costa, or terminating blind, or joining vein 1 well short of the costa (running very close to vein 1, fading distally). Wing vein 6 present; falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent. The legs without brown and yellow bands. Tibiae hind with a dorsal pre-apical bristle. Hind tibiae without strong bristles in the basal 4/5.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae acephalic. The pupae enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Very small, greyish or greyish-brown sea-shore or salt-marsh flies with complete wing venation.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Carnoidea.
British representation. 2 species in Britain. Genera 2; Canace, Xanthocanace.
Illustrations. • Canace. 1, Aulacigastridae: head of Aulacigaster leucopeza. 2a and 2b, Canacidae: wing and head of Canace nasica. 3, Diastatidae: head of a Diastata species. 4, Carnidae: Carnus sp., wing. 5a and 5b, Milichiidae: leg of Leptometopa latipes (5a), and head of Phyllomyza securicornis (5b). 6, Odiniidae: Odinia sp., wing. 7a and 7b, Tethinidae: Tethina sp., head and wing. 8, Periscelididae: Periscelis winnertzi, wing. From Colyer and Hammond (1951).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
