| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Meniscus-midges, Gnats.
Adult insects. Very small (with wing length 3–4 mm); slender-bodied; stilt-legged. Antennae 14–16 segmented; ‘simple’ (not plumed in the males). Ocelli absent. Eyes rounded, well separated. Mouthparts non-piercing (small). Mandibles present. Mandibles not in the form of long, slender, piercing stylets. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture (i.e., without the V-shaped suture of Tipulidae). Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Wing vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned. Parasitic.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae aquatic; saprophagous; eucephalic. The pupae without a puparium.
Comments. Males congregating in dancing swarms.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Culicomorpha; Superfamily Culicoidea.
British representation. 15 species in Britain. Genera 2; Dixa, Dixella.
Illustrations. • Dixa nebulosa (Clouded-winged Crane-fly: B. Ent. 409). • Dixa nebulosa (detail: B. Ent. 409). • Dixa nebulosa (dissections: B. Ent. 409). • Dixa nebulosa: B. Ent. 409, legend+text. • Dixa nebulosa: B. Ent. 409, text cont.. • Dixa maculata (from Walker). Dixa maculata, with detail of an antenna. From Walker (1856, Plate XXVI), with approximate length of insect added.
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’.
