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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
Pictured-wing Flies.
Adult insects. Small. Not shining black. Winged. The face in lateral view not deeply excavated between the antennae and the edge of the mouth. Antennae 3 segmented (third segment short and apically rounded); ‘modified’; aristate; the arista dorsal (bare, pubescent or plumose). The second antennal segment not grooved. Ptilinal suture clearly defined. Post-vertical orbital bristles present; parallel to divergent. Mouthparts functional. The maxillary palps 1 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae absent (or weak and hair-like). Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture; without well defined posterior calli. Wing venation complete, in the sense of exhibiting 1st and 2nd basal, anal and discal cells. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; with a closed anal cell. The anal cell short (usually distally convex). The costa with one break (at the end of the sub-costa). Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Wing vein 1 bare. Wing vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin, or falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned. Tibiae without a dorsal pre-apical bristle. Hind tibiae without strong bristles in the basal 4/5.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae terrestrial; saprophagous; acephalic. The pupae enclosed within a puparium.
Comments. Wings usually conspicuously longer than the abdomen; proboscis short and thick. Ovipositor with a non-retractile sheath.
Classification. Suborder Brachycera; Division Muscomorpha Schizophora Acalyptratae; Superfamily Tephritoidea.
British representation. 12 species in Britain. Genera 2; Eurygnathomyia, Palloptera.
Illustrations. • Palloptera (from Walker). 1, Palloptera "decempunctata Fal.", with detail of head viewed from the side (1a). 1b, mouth of Paloptera "litura Hoffm." (l = labrum, t = tongue, mx = maxilla, p = palp, l2 = labium; 1c, antenna. From Walker (1853, Plate XV, with 2mm scale added. Since neither of these names have been located in either the original Kloet and Hincks Check List or the 1998 update, they may not be genuine representatives of Pallopteridae).
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’.
