British Insects: the Families of Diptera
| British Insects: the Families of Diptera | |
Tylidae.
Stilt-legged Flies.
Adult insects. Small; slender-bodied; stilt-legged. Antennae 3 segmented (third segment short and rounded); ‘modified’. Antennae aristate; the bristle dorsal. The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Ocellar bristles absent. Post-vertical orbital bristles present; parallel, or divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae absent. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wings with a discal cell, or without a discal cell (i.e., no vein separating it from the second basal cell); with a subapical cell; with a closed anal cell (not apically convex). The anal cell short. The costa unbroken. Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 6 present; reaching 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. Predatory (on other insects).
Larvae and pupae. Larvae terrestrial; saprophagous (in decaying wood and vegetable matter); acephalic. Pupa enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Extraordinarily long and thin, narrow-winged flies of streamlined appearance.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Nerioidea.
British representation: Genera 5; 9 species.
Illustrations: • Calobata and Micropeza (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’.
