Zelia vertebrata

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Zelia vertebrata
Zelia vertebrata posing on a tree.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Tachinidae
Subfamily: Dexiinae
Tribe: Dexiini
Genus: Zelia
Species:
Z. vertebrata
Binomial name
Zelia vertebrata
(Say, 1829) [1] [2]
Synonyms

Zelia vertebrata is a species of bristle fly in the family Tachinidae. It is a long-bodied fly with strong abdominal bristles and a distinctive abdominal pattern that resembles vertebrae. [5] It has a widespread North American range, with records stretching from east to west from Washington to Maine, north to south from Québec to Florida. Its larval stage parasitizes beetles. [6] It is most active during the day. [7]

Contents

Biology

Zelia vertebrata P1540272a.jpg
Zelia vertebrata P1540274a.jpg

Zelia vertebrata is a generalist parasitoid, targeting beetle larvae in the families Passalidae, Scarabaeidae, Tenebrionidae, and Cerambycidae. [6] In 1948, Mangrum conducted the most thorough examination of host-parasite interaction of this species, finding that gravid female Zelia vertebrata give birth to live larvae instead of eggs near the entrances of host larval tunnels. These worm-like parasitic larvae crawl through these host tunnels until they encounter a host that they can burrow into. The parasitic larvae possess a modified respiratory system to better take advantage of their hosts. They breathe using spiracles located on their terminal abdominal segments, allowing them to breathe while almost entirely immersed in host tissue. The host's integument responds to this breach by surrounding the protruding larva, enclosing almost the entire length of the parasitoid in cuticle. [8]

As the larva grows within its host, it must disengage from this outgrowth of the host's cuticle in order to better access untapped tissues. [8] Zelia vertebrata is known as saproxylic, depending on moist rotting wood to serve as a habitat for its larval hosts. [9]

Distribution

Zelia vertebrata can be found across North America, ranging from northern regions of Canada to Northwest Mexico. While more records exist in the eastern portion of the United States, the species has been recorded in Utah., [10] Guatemala, Mexico. [11]

Taxonomy

The genus Zelia was erected in 1830 by André Jean Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy. The synonymous genera Leptoda, Metadexia, Euzelia, and Minthozelia were described after the founding of the genus Zelia by van der Wulp, Coquillett, Townsend, and Townsend respectively. [6]

The species epithet for vertebrata was coined by Say in 1829, describing synonym Dexia vertebrata. Other synonyms include Zelia rostrata and Dexia gracilis. [6]

James E. O'Hara and John O. Stireman collected a morphologically similar fly in the Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky. Mitochondrial molecular COI and morphological data supported that this was a distinct species to Zelia vertebrata. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tachinidae</span> Family of insects

The Tachinidae are a large and variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. Over 1,300 species have been described in North America alone. Insects in this family commonly are called tachinid flies or simply tachinids. As far as is known, they all are protelean parasitoids, or occasionally parasites, of arthropods, usually other insects. The family is known from many habitats in all zoogeographical regions and is especially diverse in South America.

Adejeania brasiliensis is a species of parasitic fly in the family Tachinidae. It is found in South America.

<i>Rutilia</i> Genus of flies

Rutilia is a large genus of medium to large (>20mm) flies in the family Tachinidae native to Australia and the Oriental region, though notably absent from New Zealand. Like the vast majority of tachinid flies, Rutilia species are parasitoids of other insects, specifically Rutilia are known to be parasitoids of late instar larvae of scarab beetles.

Turanogonia is a genus of parasitic flies in the family Tachinidae. There are at least four described species in Turanogonia.

<i>Zelia</i> Genus of flies

Zelia is a genus of flies in the family Tachinidae. Species in this genus occur exclusively in the Americas.

<i>Dexia</i> (fly) Genus of flies

Dexia is a genus of flies in the family Tachinidae. Most larvae are parasitoids of beetles (Scarabaeidae).

<i>Trichopoda pennipes</i> Species of fly

Trichopoda pennipes is a species of feather-legged fly in the dipteran family Tachinidae.

<i>Dexia rustica</i> Species of fly

Dexia rustica is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae.

<i>Dinera ferina</i> Species of fly

Dinera ferina (Fallen) is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae. In June 2018, the Bulletin of Insectology wrote that Dinera ferina was "confirmed to be a parasitoid of larvae of the two Italian Platycerus species, Platycerus caprea and Platycerus caraboides (L.) ."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blondeliini</span> Tribe of flies

Blondeliini is a tribe of parasitic flies in the family Tachinidae. Larvae are parasitoids of other insects, mostly beetles and caterpillars. Although nearly cosmopolitan, its greatest diversity is in the New World and especially in South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eryciini</span> Tribe of flies

Eryciini is a tribe of flies in the family Tachinidae

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phasiinae</span> Subfamily of flies

Phasiinae is a subfamily of flies in the family Tachinidae. Except for the small tribe Strongygastrini members of this subfamily attack only Heteroptera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phasiini</span> Tribe of flies

Phasiini is a tribe of flies in the family Tachinidae. As a result of phylogenetic research, most members of this tribe were transferred to other tribes in the subfamily, leaving only the two genera Elomya and Phasia.

<i>Exorista larvarum</i> Species of fly

Exorista larvarum is a Palaearctic species of fly in the family Tachinidae.

<i>Compsilura concinnata</i> Species of fly

Compsilura concinnata is a parasitoid native to Europe that was introduced to North America in 1906 to control the population of an exotic forest, univoltine, spongy moth named Lymantria dispar. It is an endoparasitoid of larvae and lives with its host for most of its life. Eventually the parasitoid ends up killing the host and occasionally eating it. It attacks over 200 host species, mainly insects from the Orders: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. Since this parasite has the ability to attack many different types of hosts, the organism has spilled over from the intended forest systems into other areas, like agricultural fields, affecting cabbage pests including the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia); the cabbage worm ; and even other invasive species such as the brown-tail moth. However, it also attacks native, non-pest insects such as the Cecropia moth and American moon moth.

<i>Archytas apicifer</i> Species of fly

Archytas apicifer is a medium to large sized Nearctic tachinid fly. The species name was authored by the German entomologist Johann Friedrich Jaennicke (1867) and presumably named after the Greek classical philosopher and mathematician Archytas. The larvae are parasites of several caterpillar species.

Clytiomya continua is a European species of fly in the family Tachinidae. Hosts for the parasitoid larvae include Coreus marginatus orientalis, Eurygaster testudinaria, Eurydema gebleri, Eurydema dominulus, Graphosoma rubrolineatum, Homalogonia confusa, and Dolycoris baccarum. Larval development takes six to eleven days.

<i>Phasia pusilla</i> Species of fly


Phasia pusilla is a European species of fly in the family Tachinidae.

<i>Archytas metallicus</i> Species of fly

Archytas metallicus is a species of bristle fly in the family Tachinidae. It is found in North America.

<i>Billaea triangulifera</i> Species of fly

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References

  1. 1 2 Say, T. (1829). "Descriptions of North American dipterous insects". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 6: 149–178. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. ↑ Say, T. (1830). "Descriptions of North American dipterous insects". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 6: 183–188. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  3. ↑ Wiedemann, Christian Rudolph Wilhelm (1830). Aussereuropäische Zweiflügelige Insekten. Vol. 2. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Robineau-Desvoidy, J.B. (1830). "Essai sur les myodaires". Mémoires présentés par divers savans à l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Institut de France (Sciences Mathématiques et Physiques). 2 (2): 1–813. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "Species Zelia vertebrata". bugguide.net. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Genus Zelia, Tachinidae of America North of Mexico". www.nadsdiptera.org. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  7. ↑ "Zelia vertebrata (Say 1829) - Encyclopedia of Life". eol.org. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  8. 1 2 Mangrum, James F. (1942-03-01). "The Parasitic Fly, Zelia Vertebrata Say (Diptera, Dexiidae)". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 35 (1): 73–75. doi: 10.1093/aesa/35.1.73 . ISSN   0013-8746.
  9. ↑ Ulyshen, Michael D. (2018), Ulyshen, Michael D. (ed.), "Saproxylic Diptera", Saproxylic Insects: Diversity, Ecology and Conservation, Zoological Monographs, vol. 1, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 167–192, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75937-1_5, ISBN   978-3-319-75937-1 , retrieved 2021-10-08
  10. ↑ "Zelia vertebrata (Say, 1829)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  11. ↑ O’Hara, James E.; Shannon, J. Henderson; D. Monty, Wood (5 March 2020). "World Checklist of the Tachinidae" (PDF). Tachinidae Resources. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  12. ↑ O'Hara, James E.; Stireman, John O. (2016). "Tachinidae of the Red River Gorge area of eastern Kentucky" (PDF). Tachinidae Resources. Tachinid Times. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
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