Gauromydas heros
| Gauromydas heros | ||||||||||||
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Gauromydas heros |
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| Gauromydas heros | ||||||||||||
| ( Perty , 1833) |
Gauromydas heros is a South American species of fly from the Mydidae family. It is the largest known species of the order of the two-winged species .
description
The species reaches a body length of seven centimeters, making it the largest species of flies and the two-winged species in general. It is a predominantly black, elongated species. The antennae on the head are noticeably elongated, they are about 1.4 times as long as the width of the head. The distal (front) section of the antennae (called postpedicellus) is usually orange in color, occasionally darkened at the base, it is about as long as the proximal one. The scutum (the tergite of the first trunk section) is velvety black with four light longitudinal bands that can be indistinct on preserved specimens. The rest of the trunk and the abdomen are black and hairy, the first tergite of the abdomen occasionally with shiny gold hair, the rest sometimes shimmering with a green metallic shimmer. The membrane of the wings is usually tinted whitish with a crystal clear (hyaline) tip and rear edge, it can rarely be brownish or orange. The posterior lobed appendix, called the alula, is longer than it is wide. The thighs , noticeably thickened, are keeled on the underside and have a spur at the end. For a reliable differentiation from other species of the genus, the male and female mating organs (Terminalia) must be examined.
The species is similar in size, color and body shape to the large and defensive wasps of the genus Pepsis , such as Pepsis heros ( mimicry ); the naming refers to this.
Biology and way of life
Gauromydas heros is rarely caught, the species apparently only has a very short flight time. Almost all of the knowledge about their biology can be traced back to the Brazilian researcher Joseph Francisco Zikán (1881–1949). The males, like the Pepsis species, visit flowers, the females evidently take no food. Males territorially occupy ant burrows of leaf cutter ants of the Atta genus , where they wait for newly hatched females. The larvae live in the large waste chambers of these ants. There they predatorily feed on beetle larvae, especially the giant beetle (Dynastinae). After pupation and the hatching of the adults, they dig themselves through an earth duct to the surface.
distribution
Finds of the species are almost only from the southwest of Brazil. It is absent in the Amazon. The northern limit of distribution in Brazil is Goiás . A single proof is available from the neighboring Paraguay ( Concepción ). In 2015, new finds were reported far from this, from the Central Cordillera in Colombia.
Taxonomy
The species was named Mydas heros in 1833 by the entomologist Maximilian Perty in his work Delectus animalium articulatorum quae ex itinere per Brasiliam, annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX jussu et auspiciis Maximiliani Josaephi I. Bavariae Regis augustissimi peracto collegerunt Dr. JB de Spix et Dr. CFPh. De Martius first described. Type locality is Bahia in Brazil. In 1989 Joseph Wilcox, Nelson Papavero and Therezinha Pimentel placed the species in the genus Gauromydas , which they newly established , of which it is a type species . The genus includes five other South American species.
swell
- Julia Calhau, Carlos José Einicker Lamas, Silvio Shigueo Nihei (2015): Review of the Gauromydas giant flies (Insecta, Diptera, Mydidae), with descriptions of two new species from Central and South America. Zootaxa 4048 (3): 392-411. doi: 10.11646 / zootaxa.4048.3.3
- Nelson Papavero (2009): Catalog of Neotropical Diptera. Mydidae. Neotropical Diptera 14: 1-31.
- JF Zikán (1942): Algo sobre a simbiose de Mydas com Atta. Rodriguésia 6 (15): 61-67. JSTOR 23491407
- William Mándor, Julián A. Salazar-E (2015): Presencia de Gauromydas heros (Perty, 1833) (Diptera, Mydidae) en nidos de Atta spp. (Hymenoptera, Myrmicinae) en Caldas y Meta, Colombia. Boletín Científico Centro de Museos Museo de Historia Natural 19 (1): 215-220.
Web links
- Gauromydas in the Mydidae species catalog (with evidence of location)