Mydidae
| Mydidae | ||||||||||||
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Mydas coerulescens |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Mydidae | ||||||||||||
| Bezzi , 1903 |
The Mydidae are a family of the two-winged (Diptera) and belong to the flies (Brachycera). Worldwide there are around 350 species in 63 genera .
The representatives of the Mydidae are relatively large, and their body length can be between 9 and 60 millimeters. The neotropical species Gauromydas heros is classified as the largest known species of fly. Despite their size, the animals are largely unknown, an indication of which is the lack of a German trivial name.
A species of the Mydidae was described for the first time in 1773. It was named by its discoverer Drury as Musca clavata and in 1794 Fabricius added it to the genus Mydas, which he created. In 1809 Latreille created his own family "Mydasii", which was later renamed "Mydidae", the named species is called Mydas clavata today .
The Mydidae are distributed worldwide, preferring like their close relatives the predatory flies (Asilidae), but desert and semi-desert areas with loose vegetation, including the Namib in Africa. However, some species are also found in the tropical rainforest , whereby the cloud forest in the mountains represents an ecological barrier for these animals. The animals can most often be seen (and caught) when the hottest hours of the day are reached. You then usually sit on the floor in direct sunlight. Their activity period is usually very short, some desert species are only found for about two weeks a year.
The Mydidae probably originated in the Mesozoic , around the time of the transition from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous . However, only one fossil Mydidae is known, Mydas miocenicus from the Oligocene , found in the USA in 1913.
literature
An extensive bibliography of the Mydidae is currently under construction at this address . Literature from 1980 to the present day is listed here.
