British Insects: the Families of Diptera
| British Insects: the Families of Diptera | |
Lepdtidae.
Life style parasitic (some adults being blood-suckers), or non-parasitic.
Adult insects. Medium-sized to large; slender-bodied; stilt-legged. Antennae 3 segmented (the third segment not annulated); ‘modified’; the terminal segment not annulated. Antennae aristate; the bristle apical, or dorsal. Eyes meeting above the antennae (in males), or not meeting. Mouthparts adapted for piercing. The maxillary palps 1 segmented, or 2 segmented; porrect. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; with a closed anal cell, or without a closed anal cell. The anal cell relatively long. The costa extending around the entire wing. 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. Vein 7 present; falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned. Tibiae at least some spurred. Feet with a triple pad beneath the tarsal claws. Predatory (on other insects), or parasitic (some blood-suckers, at least among exotic species).
Larvae and pupae. Larvae aquatic (occasionally), or terrestrial; predatory (on other insects and their larvae); hemicephalic. Pupa without a puparium.
Comments. Mostly medium to fairly large, slender, fragile-looking brown and yellow flies, without bristles.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Tabanomorpha; Superfamily Tabanoidea.
British representation: Genera 5; 15 species.
Illustrations: • Chrysophilus and Rhagio (from Walker). • Rhagio scolopaceus (Verrall 1909).
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’.
