Tephritoidea | |
---|---|
Female Physiphora alceae | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Diptera |
Subsection: | Acalyptratae |
Superfamily: | Tephritoidea |
Families | |
see text |
The Tephritoidea are a superfamily of flies. It has over 7,800 species, the majority of them in family Tephritidae. [1]
The following families are included: [2]
The Tachiniscinae, formerly ranked as the family Tachiniscidae, are now included in the Tephritidae.
Tephritoidea are generally rather hairy flies with setae weakly differentiated. They have the following synapomorphies: male tergum 6 strongly reduced or absent; surstylus or medial surstylus with toothlike prensisetae (in Piophilidae only in one genus); female sterna 4-6 with anterior rodlike apodemes; female tergosternum 7 consisting of two portions, the anterior forming a tubular oviscape and the posterior consisting of two pairs of longitudinal taeniae. [3]
In most Tephritoidea, the anal cell of a wing has a characteristic shape: the anal crossvein is indented while the cell's outer posterior angle is produced into an acute lobe. The exceptions to this rule are Platystomatidae and some Tephritidae, Ulidiidae (=Otitidae), and Pyrgotidae. [4]
Many tephritoid families have spots or patterns on their wings. These are Pallopteridae, [5] Platystomatidae, [6] Pyrgotidae, [7] Richardiidae, [8] Tephritidae [9] and Ulidiidae. [10]
Tephritoidea includes plant pests in the families Tephritidae, Lonchaeidae and Ulidiidae. [11] [12] In these pest species, adult females lay their eggs on plant tissues, which hatch into larvae that begin feeding. [11] However, Tephritoidea also includes parasitoids (Ctenostylidae, Pyrgotidae and the tephritid subfamily Tachiniscinae) and saprophages that feed on decaying plants (subfamily Phytalmiinae and some Lonchaeidae). [2] [11]
Tephritoidea is a monophyletic superfamily that can be divided into two also-monophyletic groups: the Piophilidae Family Group (Pallopteridae, Circumphallidae, Lonchaeidae, Piophilidae and Eurygnathomyiidae) and the Tephritidae Family Group (Richardiidae, Ulidiidae, Platystomatidae, Tephritidae, Ctenostylidae and Pyrgotidae). [2]
The first Tephritoidea are believed to have evolved in the mid-Paleocene, approximately 59 million years ago. [2]
The Acalyptratae or Acalyptrata are a subsection of the Schizophora, which are a section of the order Diptera, the "true flies". In various contexts the Acalyptratae also are referred to informally as the acalyptrate muscoids, or acalyptrates, as opposed to the Calyptratae. All forms of the name refer to the lack of calypters in the members of this subsection of flies. An alternative name, Acalypterae is current, though in minority usage. It was first used by Pierre-Justin-Marie Macquart in 1835 for a section of his tribe Muscides; he used it to refer to all acalyptrates plus scathophagids and phorids, but excluding Conopidae.
The Ulidiidae or picture-winged flies are a large and diverse cosmopolitan family of flies (Diptera), and as in related families, most species are herbivorous or detritivorous. They are often known as picture-winged flies, along with members of other families in the superfamily Tephritoidea that have patterns of bands or spots on the wings. Some species share with the Tephritidae an unusual elongated posteroapical projection of the anal cell in the wing, but can be differentiated by the smoothly curving subcostal vein. Two species, Tetanops myopaeformis and Euxesta stigmatias, are agricultural pests.
Sphaeroceroidea is a superfamily of flies. It includes the cosmopolitan families of Sphaeroceridae, Heleomyzidae, and Chyromyidae, as well as a few smaller groups. It has about 2,600 species.
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
The Platystomatidae are a distinctive family of flies (Diptera) in the superfamily Tephritoidea.
The Tachiniscinae are a subfamily of the fruit fly family Tephritidae. They are treated by some authorities as a separate family, Tachiniscidae. An undetermined species of the genus Tachiniscidia has been reared from Saturniidae caterpillars in Nigeria.
The Pyrgotidae are an unusual family of flies (Diptera), one of only two families of Cyclorrhapha that lack ocelli. Most species are "picture-winged", as is typical among the Tephritoidea, but unlike other tephritoids, they are endoparasitoids; the females pursue scarab beetles in flight, laying an egg on the beetle's back under the elytra where the beetle cannot reach it. The egg hatches and the fly larva enters the body cavity of the beetle, feeding and eventually killing the host before pupating. In the United States, some species of Pyrgota and Sphecomyiella can be quite common in areas where their host beetles are abundant. Like their host beetles, these flies are primarily nocturnal, and are often attracted to artificial lights.
The Richardiidae are a family of Diptera in the superfamily Tephritoidea.
Tephritis is a genus of flies. It contains around 170 described species, making it the sixth largest genus in the family Tephritidae. Many more undescribed species are known from specimen collections. Tephritis occur throughout much of the world, but most are Palearctic. They can be found in a wide range of climate types, from hot semidesert to tundra. Most species inhabit the inflorescences of plants from several tribes in the family Asteraceae, and a few species cause galls to form.
Tujunga is a monotypic genus of picture-winged fly in the family Ulidiidae. Tujunga mackenziei is the sole species in the genus.
Otitinae is the name of a subfamily of flies in the family Ulidiidae. It was formerly the Otitidae. Like the Ulidiinae, most species are herbivorous or saprophagous. Most species share with the Tephritidae an unusual elongated projection of the anal cell in the wing, but can be differentiated by the smoothly curving subcostal vein. Most are dull gray to shiny brown or black flies with vein R1 setulose or, in a few cases, bare.
The Ulidiinae are a subfamily of flies in the family Ulidiidae. Like the Otitinae, most species are herbivorous or saprophagous. Most species share with the Tephritidae an unusual elongated projection of the anal cell in the wing but can be differentiated by the smoothly curving subcostal vein. Most are dull gray to shiny brown or black flies with vein R1 setulose or, in a few cases, bare.
Physiphora alceae is a species of ulidiid or picture-winged fly in the genus Physiphora of the family Ulidiidae.
Diptera is an order of winged insects commonly known as flies. Diptera, which are one of the most successful groups of organisms on Earth, are very diverse biologically. None are truly marine but they occupy virtually every terrestrial niche. Many have co-evolved in association with plants and animals. The Diptera are a very significant group in the decomposition and degeneration of plant and animal matter, are instrumental in the breakdown and release of nutrients back into the soil, and whose larvae supplement the diet of higher agrarian organisms. They are also an important component in food chains.
Platystomatinae is a subfamily of flies (Diptera) in the family Platystomatidae that includes 80 genera, the largest subfamily with at last estimate, c. 900 species globally.
Ortalis is an historic genus of Ulidiid or picture-winged flies, first described by Fallén in 1810. It served as the type genus for the family Ulidiidae, which was called Ortalidae at the time. In 1932, it was pointed out by Adlrich that the name Ortalis was preoccupied by a genus of birds which had been named by Merrem in 1786. The name of the fly family was therefore revised, with some authors calling it Otitidae until Ulidiidae was settled on as standard. The genus itself was found to be paraphyletic, and all of its species have been reassigned to other genera, some in the Ulidiidae, and some in other Tephritoid families. In the following list, the species are organized according to the families and genera to which they have been reassigned.
Myennidini is a tribe of picture-winged flies in the family Ulidiidae.
Cephaliini is a tribe of picture-winged flies in the family Ulidiidae.