British Insects: the Families of Diptera
| British Insects: the Families of Diptera | |
Midges, Non-biting Midges, Blood-worms.
Adult insects. Very small to medium-sized; slender-bodied; stilt-legged (notably the fore-legs). Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’ (hairy, and usually plumose in males). Antennae not aristate. Ocelli absent. Eyes not meeting. Mouthparts functional (poorly developed), or non-functional; when operational, non-piercing. Mandibles absent. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture (without the V-shaped suture Tipulidae). Wing veins reaching the margin 6–8. Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa not extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; terminating blind (but long). The leading edge veins markedly stronger than the rest to not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 4 not forked. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae aquatic; phytophagous, or saprophagous; eucephalic. Pupa without a puparium (the last larval skin remaining attached to the posterior segments).
Comments. Delicate, gnat-like flies, often with the head overhung by the humped thorax; wings narrow, usually held apart at rest. The males frequently dancing in swarms, especially near water.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Culicomorpha; Superfamily Chironomoidea.
British representation: Genera about 140; 588 species.
Illustrations: • Ablabesmyia, Chironomus, Clunio, Diamesa, Harnischia, Potthastia (from Walker). • Macropelopia nebulosa (Clouded-winged Midge: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (detail: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (dissections: B. Ent. 501). • Macropelopia nebulosa (B. Ent. 501, legend+text). • Eurycnemus crassipes (Bentleyan Midge: B. Ent. 090).
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’.
