Dung flies
| Dung flies | ||||||||||||
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Yellow dung fly ( Scathophaga stercoraria ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Scathophagidae | ||||||||||||
| Robineau-Desvoidy , 1830 | ||||||||||||
| Subfamilies | ||||||||||||
The dung flies (Scathophagidae) are a smaller family of flies within the Muscoidea belonging to the Brachycera and Cyclorrhapha . They become 4 to 15 mm long. They are predominantly dark (also shiny metallic) or yellow and very hairy and bristled. Because of the genus Scathophaga , they are also known collectively as "dung flies", although the vast majority of the approx. 500 described species (in approx. 66 genera; in Central Europe approx. 140 species) ecologically have nothing to do with excrement.
features
The larvae ( maggots ), which have two extensions at the end of the abdomen for breathing (so-called stigma carriers), live as leaf miners, stem and seed capsule drills in plants (mostly monocotyledons ), as predators that feed on other insects in the water or generally in moist biotopes (such as piles of seaweed, rotting fruits or manure, some also on carrion). The adults like to visit flowers (e.g. of umbellifers ) and also suckle nectar, but are hardly pollinators, but only lurk here again for other insects, which they grab with their spiked front legs and suck out with their hard proboscis. Some species only live on plant sap. They like to catch blowflies in the vicinity of cattle pastures, so they are to be regarded as beneficial insects . They are known for their often complex sexual behavior , s. about .
distribution
Their distribution center was apparently in East Asia, they spread over the Palearctic and Nearctic , hardly (only 5 species) to the southern hemisphere, as they avoid warmer areas. However, two species of Scathophaga also occur as cultural followers in South Africa and Brazil. Fossil are known Scathophagiden from the Eocene on.
Systematics
There are two subfamilies : the Delininae and the Scathophaginae.
List of Scathophagid genera of the Palearctic by František Šifner (2008). Most genera are holarctic ; currently around 220 Palearctic species are valid there.
- Delininas
- Scathophaginae
- Acanthocnema
- Acerocnema
- Allomyella
- Amaurosoma
- Bostrichopyga
- Bucephalina
- Ceratinostoma
- Chaetosa
- Cleigastra
- Coniosternum
- Cordilura (also Cordylura , invalid)
- Cosmetopus
- Ernoneura
- Gimnomera (also Gymnomera , invalid)
- Gonarcticus
- Gonatherus
- Hexamitocera
- Huckettia
- Hydromyza
- Long Christia
- Lasioscelus
- Megaphthalma
- Megaphthalmoides
- Microprosopa
- Miroslava
- Mixocordylura
- Norellia
- Norellisoma
- Okeniella
- Orthacheta
- Paracosmetopus
- Parallel comma
- Phrosia
- Pleurochaetella
- Pogonota
- Scathophaga (also Scatophaga , invalid); s. Scathophaga stercoraria
- Scoliaphleps
- Spathephilus
- Spaziphora
- Staegeria
- Trichopalpus
Names: Scathophagidae and Scatophagidae
Scathophaga is a word coined by the dipterologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1803), who created hundreds of scientific names. He (or a typesetter at the time of going to press) made the mistake of setting the name of the dung flies to Scathophaga , which should have been correctly spelled Scatophaga - apparently the th was 'influenced' by the following ph . In the past, such spelling mistakes were simply corrected - Meigen himself wrote Scatophaga later (e.g. 1838), of course , which is why "Scatophaga" (and "Scatophagidae") can be found more frequently in literature than " Scathophaga " '(Scathophagidae). Today however (according to the priority principle ) only the first published name form is to be regarded as the valid one. The name of the fish genus Scatophagus shows the correct orthography - both names mean "faeces eater" (σκῶρ, genitive σκατός "dung"; ϕαγά (ς) and ϕάγος "-fresser"). However, Meigen's mistake makes the two different family names Scathophagidae (dung flies) and Scatophagidae ( Argus fish ) possible, the latter of which would have had to be changed to "Scatophagusidae" without him. Objectively, the name of the flies is incorrect, since the larvae do not live directly (if at all) from the dung, but (e.g.) predatory from other insects in it.
literature
- Johann Wilhelm Meigen: Attempt of a new genus division of the European two-winged insects. - Magazin für Naturkunde 2 (1803): 249–281.
- Johann Wilhelm Meigen: Systematic description of the known European two-winged insects. Hall 1838. online: Google Books
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/06/23/rspb.2009.0632
- ^ A catalog of the Scathophagidae (Diptera) of the Palaearctic region, with notes on their taxonomy and faunistics.- Acta entomologica musei nationalis Pragae 48: 111-196. http://www.aemnp.eu/PDF/48_1/Sifner_katalog.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
