British Insects: the Families of Diptera
| British Insects: the Families of Diptera | |
Leaf-mining Flies.
Adult insects. Very small to small. Antennae 3 segmented; ‘modified’. Antennae aristate (with the third segment either rounded, or produced into a sharp point); the bristle dorsal. The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Ocellar bristles present. Lower orbital bristles present; incurved. Post-vertical orbital bristles present; divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae present. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wings with a discal cell, or without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell very short. The costa with one break (at the end of the sub-costa). Sub-costa apparent (faint); reaching the costa independently of vein 1, or joining vein 1 more or less where it joins the costa, or joining vein 1 well short of the costa. 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.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; phytophagous (boring and mining stems and leaves); forming galls, or not gall-forming; acephalic. Pupa enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Very small flies, the females with a non-retractile ovipositor sheath.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Opomyzoidea.
British representation: Genera 19; 367 species.
Illustrations: • Napomyza lateralis (Feverfew Phytomyza: B. Ent. 393). • Napomyza lateralis (detail: B. Ent. 393). • Napomyza lateralis (dissections: B. Ent. 393). • Napomyza lateralis (B. Ent. 393, legend+text). • Napomyza lateralis (text, cont.: B. Ent. 393). • Cerodontha denticornis and Phytomyza affinis (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 April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.
