Tasty mosquitoes

Tasty mosquitoes
Dixa nebulosa
Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta) Order : Fly (Diptera) Subordination : Mosquitoes (Nematocera) Partial order : Mosquito-like (Culicomorpha) Superfamily : Culicoidea Family : Tasty mosquitoes
Scientific name
Dixidae
Schiner , 1868
Genera
Dixa Dixella

Dixidae wing veins

Larvae of Dixella sp.

The tasting mosquitoes (also called double-sided mosquitoes or phantom mosquitoes) (Dixidae) are a family in the order of the two-winged mosquitoes ( Diptera) and belong to the mosquitoes (suborder: Nematocera). Around 175 species of this animal group live worldwide, of which only 16 species of the genus Dixa with body sizes of three to four millimeters are known from Germany.

features

The adults are delicate and long-legged and resemble small snakes (Tipulidae). The trunk is very short. Tasty mosquitoes live in damp places near water and are flower visitors, they do not bite. Occasionally the mosquitoes make dance flights.

development

The eggs are laid as a clutch in the form of a boat, glued to stones with jelly.

The larvae are aquatic / aquatic and do not have a breathing tube / sipho (unlike the mosquitoes of the subfamily Culicinae , for example Culex or Aedes with breathing tube, which enables them to get enough oxygen from the surface even in brackish water). This suggests that the larvae are adapted to clear, clean water. At rest they take a typical U-shaped posture. The larvae are found especially on the waterline and in shallow water. The head lies in the water, the non-wettable posterior stigma field with the tracheal openings on the surface membrane and the curved middle section of the body, usually covered by a film of water, outside the water. Movement takes place with the bend first by alternately pushing the segments of the front and rear body together. It hibernates as a larva. The doll often lies on its side.

European species (selection)

• Genus Dixa
  • Dixa dilata
  • Dixa maculata
  • Dixa nebulosa
  • Dixa puberula
  • Dixa submaculata
• Genus Dixella
  • Dixella aestivallis
  • Dixella amphibia
  • Dixella borealis
  • Dixella dyari
  • Dixella filicornis
  • Dixella hyperborea
  • Dixella nigra
  • Dixella obscura

Fossil evidence

Fossil evidence of tactile mosquitoes is rare. Species of the genera Dixa and Paradixa have been described from Eocene Baltic amber . In addition, the family is proven in the somewhat younger Dominican amber . The so far oldest fossil evidence of this family goes back to a find in the Lower Cretaceous Australia.

Individual evidence

1. ^ [1] Lexicon of Biology.
2. ↑ George O. Poinar, Jr .: Life in Amber . 350 pp., 147 figs., 10 plates, Stanford University Press, Stanford (Cal.) 1992. ISBN 0-8047-2001-0
3. ↑ Wolfgang Weitschat and Wilfried Wichard: Atlas of plants and animals in Baltic amber , 256 p., Numerous. Fig., Pfeil-Verlag, Munich 1998. ISBN 3-931516-45-8
4. ↑ http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/fossilcat/fosssdixidae.html fossil Diptera

literature

• K. Honomichl, H. Bellmann: Biology and ecology of the insects . CD-Rom, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1994.
• Michael Chinery: Parey's Book of Insects . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-440-09969-5 .
• Øyvind Håland: Dixidae, U-mygg. In: Aagaard, K. & Dolmen, D. (red.): Limnofauna norvegica. Catalog about norsk ferskvannsfauna. Tapir forlag, Trondheim 1996, pp. 199-201, ISBN 82-519-1214-8

Web links

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