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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
~Bibionidae
Adult insects. Very small to small; not hairy bodied; not stilt-legged. Antennae 8–16 segmented (the segments not very distinct); ‘simple’ (short and compact); not aristate. Ocelli present; 3. Eyes asymmetric, nearly or quite connected above the antennae. The maxillary palps 1 segmented, or 3–5 segmented; drooping. Vibrissae absent. Wing veins reaching the margin 5–8 (? fewer than 9). Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa unbroken. Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind. The leading edge veins markedly stronger than the rest. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent. Tibiae without spurs; without a dorsal pre-apical bristle.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae terrestrial; saprophagous, or coprophagous; eucephalic. The pupae without a puparium (but the normal pupa almost enclosed in the last larval skin).
Comments. Small to minute flies, often black.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Psychodomorpha; Superfamily Scatopsoidea.
British representation. 42 species in Britain. Genera 16; Anapausis, Apiloscatopse, Aspistes, Coboldia, Colobostema, Ectaetia, Efcookella, Ferneiella, Holoplagia, Neorhegmoclemina, Parascatopse, Reichertella, Rhexoza, Scatopse, Swammerdamella, Thripomorpha.
Illustrations. • Aspistes, Fcookella and Scatopse (from Walker). 5, Apiloscatopse bifilata, male, with details of antenna (5a) and extremity of abdomen (5b). 5c, wing of Fcookella albitarsis. 6, Aspistes berolinensis, with detail of antenna (6a). From Walker (1856, Plate XXIV), with 1mm 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’.
