Scenopinidae Temporal range: | |
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Scenopinus fenestralis | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Diptera |
Superfamily: | Asiloidea |
Family: | Scenopinidae Fallén, 1817 |
Synonyms | |
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The Scenopinidae or window flies are a small (about 400 described species) [1] family of flies (Diptera), distributed worldwide. In buildings, they are often taken at windows, hence the common name window flies.
The two species with cosmopolitan distributions are associated with the movement of trade goods ( Scenopinus fenestralis and S. glabrifrons). Very little is known of the larval biology; larvae have been found associated with stored-grain pests, in nests of birds and rodents, in beetle larvae burrows in trees and shrubs, and in association with therevid larvae in soil. They may be predators of the larvae of other insects. Adults have sponging mouthparts and are found on open flowers.
The adults are small insects, usually with the body no longer than 5 mm, glabrous or slightly hairy and with blackish livery. The head is holoptic in the males of most species, and dichoptic in females. It is provided with three ocelli. The pendulous antennae are composed of three segments the two basal segments short and the third elongated; ‘modified’; with a nonannulated flagellum. The mouthparts are of the sucking type with the labrum (proboscis) very short and with a fleshy apex, and one- or two-segmented maxillary palps. The thorax is moderately convex, with mesoscutal bristles in the Proratinae. The legs are short and lack arolia and empodia. The wings overlap on the abdomen, in the resting phase. The abdomen is large and cylindrical or flattened, composed of seven apparent urites in males and eight in females.
The wing venation differs substantially from that of Therevidae by the number of branches of the media which are reduced to two or three and from that of Bombyliidae in having a simpler radial system. In most of the family, the costa stops short of the wing apex, in correspondence with the termination of R 5 or M 1. An exception is Caenotus, in which the costa extends for the entire margin.
The radius is divided into four branches, with R 2+3 undivided. The entire radial system is positioned in the front half of the wing, without going beyond the axis that connects the base with the apex. R 1 and R 2+3 are relatively short and converge on the costal margin with a short distance between them. R 4 terminates on the costal margin, R 5 terminates before the apex of the wing or, in some genera, at the apex (but R 5 may also converge on the apex as in Cyrtosarthe and Pseudatrichia).
The media is divided into two or three branches. M 1 is always present and usually reaches the wing margin before or at the apex of the wing (e.g. Scenopinus, Prepseudatrichia, Caenotinae, Proratinae); in most genera of Scenopininae, R 5 closes a cell, while in Cyrtosarthe, it converges on the posterior margin; in some Australian species, belonging to the genera Scenopinus and Rekiella, M 1 is incomplete and does not reach the margin. M 2 is missing in the majority of the Scenopininae, but it is present in the Proratinae in Cyrtosarthe and Caenotus and runs into on the posterior border.
In these genera, the bifurcation of M 1+2 coincides with the front apex of the distal discal cell, or is placed in a distal position with respect to the cell. M 3 is absent in the whole family, M 4 is always present, but in Seguyia it is incomplete and does not reach the margin.
The conformation of the cells is strictly dependent on the morphology of the venation: the marginal cell is very narrow and opens as does the submarginal on the costal margin; the first rear cell is relatively long and opens close to the apex of the wing. The discal cell has a pentagonal shape (quadrangular in the Scenopininae) apparently due to the absence of vein M 2 and the first basal cell is generally much longer than the second due to the development in length of the discal and the position of the radio-medial vein .
In general, the larvae of the Scenopinidae colonize the sandy soils of arid environments or dry litter and feed by preying on other soil arthropods. Frequently, however, they are, always as predators, in other habitats, such as wood and other substrates, decomposing organic, dens and nests of mammals and birds, and sometimes domestic environments. The latter habit, derived from a secondary synanthropic adaptation, is frequent in some species of the genus Scenopinus. In this case, the larvae prey on insect pests of clothing (moths), foodstuffs (larvae of moths and beetles), wood (termites) or zooparasites associated with humans or domestic animals, such as dust mites and fleas. Adults feed on nectar and honeydew .
In the past, the Scenopinidae included only the current subfamily Scenopininae, while the other genera known at that time were placed in other families. Prorates was described and classified by Melander (1906) [2] among Empididae and Caenotus was described and classified by Cole (1923) [3] within Therevidae. Currently Prorates and other members of the former Bombyliidae subfamily Proratinae, as well as Caenotus, are included in Scenopinidae, sharing apomorphies with other Scenopinidae, resulting in three subfamilies: the Caenotinae, the Proratinae, and the Scenopininae. [4]
Asiloidea |
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Clade showing relationship of Asiloidea
The oldest known member of the family is Burmaproratesalagracilis from the mid Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar, which belongs to the subfamily Proratinae. [5]
The family is worldwide, and while the Nearctic realm has the most species, this may be because other parts of the world are far less intensively studied and many new species remain undiscovered.[ citation needed ]
A crane fly is any member of the dipteran superfamily Tipuloidea, which contains the living families Cylindrotomidae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae and Tipulidae, as well as several extinct families. "Winter crane flies", members of the family Trichoceridae, are sufficiently different from the typical crane flies of Tipuloidea to be excluded from the superfamily Tipuloidea, and are placed as their sister group within Tipulomorpha.
The Bombyliidae are a family of flies, commonly known as bee flies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae are mostly parasitoids of other insects.
The Asiloidea comprise a very large superfamily insects in the order Diptera, the true flies. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring worldwide. It includes the family Bombyliidae, the bee flies, which are parasitoids, and the Asilidae, the robber flies, which are predators of other insects.
The Phoridae are a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their escape habit of running rapidly across a surface rather than taking to the wing. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names, scuttle fly. Another vernacular name, coffin fly, refers to Conicera tibialis. About 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well-known species is cosmopolitan Megaselia scalaris. At 0.4 mm in length, the world's smallest fly is the phorid Euryplatea nanaknihali.
Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea.
The Fanniidae are a small group of true flies largely confined to the Holarctic and temperate Neotropical realms; there are 11 Afrotropical species, 29 Oriental, and 14 Australasian.
The Lonchopteridae are a family of small (2–5 mm), slender, yellow to brownish-black Diptera, occurring all over the world. Their common name refers to their pointed wings, which have a distinct venation. Many are parthenogenic; males are very rare, however, at least in North American species, and have a somewhat different venation than do the females.
The Therevidae are a family of flies of the superfamily Asiloidea commonly known as stiletto flies. The family contains about 1,600 described species worldwide, most diverse in arid and semiarid regions with sandy soils. The larvae are predators of insect larvae in soil.
The soldier flies are a family of flies. The family contains over 2,700 species in over 380 extant genera worldwide. Larvae are found in a wide array of locations, mostly in wetlands, damp places in soil, sod, under bark, in animal excrement, and in decaying organic matter. Adults are found near larval habitats. They are diverse in size and shape, though they commonly are partly or wholly metallic green, or somewhat wasplike mimics, marked with black and yellow or green and sometimes metallic. They are often rather inactive flies which typically rest with their wings placed one above the other over the abdomen.
The Psilidae are family of flies. Commonly called the rust flies, at least 38 species are in four genera. The carrot fly is a member of this group. They are found mainly in the Holarctic.
The Agromyzidae are a family of flies, commonly referred to as the leaf-miner flies for the feeding habits of their larvae, most of which are leaf miners on various plants. It includes roughly 2,500 species, they are small, some with wing length of 1 mm. The maximum size is 6.5 mm. Most species are in the range of 2 to 3 mm.
Empididae is a family of flies with over 3,000 described species occurring worldwide in all the biogeographic realms but the majority are found in the Holarctic. They are mainly predatory flies like most of their relatives in the Empidoidea, and exhibit a wide range of forms but are generally small to medium-sized, non-metallic and rather bristly.
The Lonchaeidae are a family of acalyptrate flies commonly known as lance flies. 610 described species are placed into 10 genera. These are generally small but robustly built flies with blue-black or metallic bodies. They are found, most commonly in wooded areas, throughout the world with the exception of polar regions and New Zealand. Details of the distribution of genera and species by biogeographic realm are included in the World Catalogue of the family Lonchaeidae
Rhagionidae or snipe flies are a small family of flies. They get their name from the similarity of their often prominent proboscis that looks like the beak of a snipe.
Diastatidae are a family of flies in the order Diptera. They are encountered primarily in the Holarctic Region, but several species are found in the Oriental, Neotropical and Australasian regions. Members of the family number over 20 described species in three genera. There is an additional fossil genus.
Platypezidae is a family of true flies of the superfamily Platypezoidea. The more than 250 species are found worldwide primarily in woodland habitats. A common name is flat-footed flies, but this is also used for the closely related Opetiidae which were formerly included in the Platypezidae.
Heterostylum is a genus of flies belonging to the family Bombyliidae (bee-flies). There are 14 described species, distributed throughout the Americas. These are robust and very hairy flies with a body length of 10–15 mm. They can be distinguished from similar genera by an indentation in the hind margin of the eye and unique wing venation.
Apsilocephalidae is a family of flies in the superfamily Asiloidea. It was historically treated as a subfamily within Therevidae, but placed in a separate family in 1991, and subsequently recognized as more distantly related. The family contains three extant genera and at least five extinct genera described from the fossil record.
Cerioidini is a widespread tribe of around 222 species of hoverfly. Cerioidini are mistaken for wasps for which they are effective mimic. Cerioidini have antennae with a terminal style and have somewhat elongate and basally constricted abdomens, only slightly in Ceriana, but pronounced in most Sphiximorpha; and Polybiomyia, and extremely in Monoceromyia. Larvae live mostly within tree sap associated with tree wounds or putrefying pockets of water in tree cavities.
Dipteran morphology differs in some significant ways from the broader morphology of insects. 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.
A Website dedicated to the Scenopinidae is at California Department of Food and Agriculture