Camillidae

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Camillidae
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Superfamily: Ephydroidea
Family: Camillidae
Frey, 1921
Genera

Others...

The Camillidae are a family of flies, or Diptera. The family has five genera (four living; one fossil).

Contents

Description

Camilla wing veins Camilla wing veins.svg
Camilla wing veins

For terms see Morphology of Diptera

Minute (2–3.5 mm or 0.079–0.138 in long), slender, lustrous black flies with hyaline wings. The postvertical bristles on the head are cruciate. There are three small orbital bristles on head on each side of frons, one of which is poorly developed. The vibrissae on the head are well developed. The arista has long rays above and shorter rays below. There are two pairs of dorsocentral bristles on thorax and one mesopleural bristle on the side of the thorax. The costa is interrupted near R1, the subcosta reduced and close to R1, the posterior basal wing cell and discoidal wing cell are fused; anal wing cell rudimentary. Femur of forelegs has a spine on its ventral side.

Biology

The lifestyle of the Camillidae is for the most part little known. There is an assumption that the larvae feed on decaying plant matter or animal faeces. Adults have frequently been found at the entrances of mammal burrows, or captured in mammal nests. Adults may be also found feeding on flowers. One species has been reared from larvae in the dung of rock hyraxes in Southern Africa (Barraclough, 1992).

Genera

Identification

Phylogeny

   Ephydroidea   

  Curtonotidae

  Diastatidae+Ephydridae

  Drosophilidae

 Camillidae

   Ephydroidea   

  Curtonotidae+Drosophilidae

  Diastatidae

  Ephydridae

 Camillidae

McAlpine (1989) [1] Grimaldi (1990) [2]

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The Diptera is a very large and diverse order of mostly small to medium-sized insects. They have prominent compound eyes on a mobile head, and one pair of functional, membraneous wings, which are attached to a complex mesothorax. The second pair of wings, on the metathorax, are reduced to halteres. The order's fundamental peculiarity is its remarkable specialization in terms of wing shape and the morpho-anatomical adaptation of the thorax – features which lend particular agility to its flying forms. The filiform, stylate or aristate antennae correlate with the Nematocera, Brachycera and Cyclorrhapha taxa respectively. It displays substantial morphological uniformity in lower taxa, especially at the level of genus or species. The configuration of integumental bristles is of fundamental importance in their taxonomy, as is wing venation. It displays a complete metamorphosis, or holometabolous development. The larvae are legless, and have head capsules with mandibulate mouthparts in the Nematocera. The larvae of "higher flies" (Brachycera) are however headless and wormlike, and display only three instars. Pupae are obtect in the Nematocera, or coarcate in Brachycera.

Periscelididae Family of flies

Periscelididae is a family of flies.

References

  1. McAlpine, J.F. 1989. Chapter 116. Phylogeny and classification of the Muscomorpha. In Manual of Nearctic Diptera. Vol. 3. Coordinated by J.F. McAlpine and D.M. Wood. Agriculture Canada Monograph, 32. pp. 1397–1518.
  2. Grimaldi, David A. 1990. A phylogenetic, revised classification of genera in the Drosophilidae (Diptera) Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History 1971-139