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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Hairy Moth-flies, Owl-midges.
Adult insects. Very small to small (wings up to 4.5 mm long, but usually much smaller). Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’. Ocelli absent. Mouthparts non-functional. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Vibrissae absent. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture. Wing veins reaching the margin 10, or 11. 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; terminating blind, or joining vein 1 well short of the costa. Wing vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae aquatic, or terrestrial; saprophagous, or coprophagous (sometimes abundant in sewage filters); eucephalic. The pupae without a puparium.
Comments. Mostly minute, hairy, moth-like flies, usually resting with the wings held roof-like over the body. Wings often pointed. Often seen on windows and on tree trunks, running jerkily.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Psychodomorpha; Superfamily Psychodoidea.
British representation. 94 species in Britain. Genera 20; Brunettia, Bazarella, Boreoclytocerus, Feuerborniella, Mormia, Panimerus, Paramormia, Pericoma, Peripsychoda, Philosepedon, Psychoda, Sycorax, Szaboiella, Telmatoscopus, Threticus, Tonnoiriella, Trichomyia, Trichopsychoda, Tinearia, Vaillantia.
Illustrations. • Tinearia alternata: B. Ent. 745. • Tinearia alternata: B. Ent. 745, legend+text. • Tinearia alternata: B. Ent. 745, text cont.. • Tinearia, Trichomyia, Ulomyia (from Walker). 1, Tinearia alternata: wing (1a); head from below (1b); tip of proboscis, pressed open (1c), showing maxilla (m); ditto, opened more (1d); maxilla and base of palp (1e); labium (1f and g); bivalved oviscapt (vaginal tentacles, 1h); and a joint of a male antenna, with base of the adjoining one (1i). 2a, Pericoma sp., front of head. 3, Ulomyia fuliginosa: wings of male (3a), and female (3b). 4, Trichomyia urbica, male. From Walker, with 2mm scale 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’.
