| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Carniidae. Formerly in Milichiidae
Life style parasitic (at least in the adult stage); on birds.
Adult insects. Very small (1–1.5 mm long); winged. Antennae 2–6 segmented; ‘modified’; aristate. The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Post-vertical orbital bristles present, or absent (?); parallel, or divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wing venation incomplete, in the sense of lacking one or more of the cells. Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa with two breaks (at the end of the subcosta and near that of the humeral vein). Sub-costa apparent; joining vein 1 more or less where it joins the costa, or joining vein 1 well short of the costa. Wing vein 4 very short, extending little beyond the end of the first basal cell. Wing vein 6 present (but only as a shadowy fold); 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. Parasitic (Carnus hemapterus is a bloodsucker, residing in the nests of birds).
Larvae and pupae. The larvae saprophagous, or coprophagous (living in refuse in birds’ nests); acephalic. The pupae enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Tiny flies, with incomplete wing venation.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Carnoidea.
British representation. 13 species in Britain. Genera 2; Carnus, Meoneura.
Illustrations. • Carnus. 1, Aulacigastridae: head of Aulacigaster leucopeza. 2a and 2b, Canacidae: wing and head of Canace nasica. 3, Diastatidae: head of a Diastata species. 4, Carnidae: Carnus sp., wing. 5a and 5b, Milichiidae: leg of Leptometopa latipes (5a), and head of Phyllomyza securicornis (5b). 6, Odiniidae: Odinia sp., wing. 7a and 7b, Tethinidae: Tethina sp., head and wing. 8, Periscelididae: Periscelis winnertzi, wing. From Colyer and Hammond (1951).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
