British Insects: the Families of Diptera
| British Insects: the Families of Diptera | |
Adult insects. Very small (mostly under 3 mm long); slender-bodied. Antennae 3 segmented (the third segment inclined down from the second); ‘modified’. Antennae aristate; the bristle dorsal (pubescent or shortly plumose). The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Lower orbital bristles absent. Post-vertical orbital bristles present (small), or absent; when present, convergent to 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; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell short. The costa unbroken (but then sometimes distictly narrowed near the end of vein 1), or with one break (close to where the upper margin of vein 1 merges with it). Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind, 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 (mining stems or leaves of grasses and rushes); acephalic. Pupa enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Small or very small, slender bodied flies with long narrow wings.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Opomyzoidea.
British representation: Genera 6; 19 species.
Illustrations: • Anthomyza albimana (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’.
