Africa Wild Insect Book Flies (Diptera)

[Klipspringer]

Putsi Fly Cordylobia anthropophaga
Family: Calliphoridae

© Richprins
Female, Marloth Park

Description
Stout, yellow-brown, 8-12 mm in length. Face and legs yellow. Two black marks on the thorax. Adult flies feed on decaying fruits, carrion and faeces and have large, fully developed mouthparts. The arista of the antenna has setae on both sides. The thoracic squamae are without setae and the stem vein of the wing is without bristles.

It is a parasite of large mammals (including humans) during its larval stage and is a common cause of myiasis in humans in some regions.
The fly lays the eggs in soil, clothing or bedding. When an animal lays down on the affected area, the body heat attracts the hatched larvae and it then burrows into the skin. There they live off the bodily fluids of the host until they are ready to pupate. This fly species generally parasitises large mammals including dogs and, inadvertently, humans. The flies typically deposit their eggs in soil but will also lay them on soiled clothing.
Humans can become infected by these larvae by donning clothes on which eggs have been laid. It is extremely important to note that washing should not be laid on the ground to dry. The NIDC said treatment consisted of covering the lesion with Vaseline or liquid paraffin, which suffocates the larva. Treatment should be left on for 30 minutes to an hour and then the larva should be pushed out via finger pressure.
It said attempted removal by instruments may rupture the larva and cause severe inflammation. It is advisable to seek medical attention for you or your animal should you suspect an infestation, to prevent any further inflammation or discomfort.

Distribution
This fly has been endemic in the subtropics of Africa for more than 135 years. According to the National Institute for Disease Control (NIDC), this fly is common in Africa and occurs in the northern regions of South Africa including Northern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces.

Tumbu Fly.jpg (76.26 KiB) Viewed 1291 times

[Klipspringer]

Nose Fly cf. Isomyia sp.
Superfamily Oestroidea. Family Rhiniidae.

Isomyia.jpg (115.3 KiB) Viewed 1108 times

Flies spend much of their time on flowers. Nectar is one of the most important foods for majority of dipterans with respect to adult energetic
requirements for flight in dispersing, finding mates, mating, and searching sites for oviposition.

Nelspruit © Richprins


Rhiniidae (Nose Flies)
Formerly regarded as a subfamily of the Calliphoridae. Members are characterised by having the lower part of the face strongly protruding, bare glossy areas on the upper half of the occiput, a row of setae on the dorsal surface of the stem vein, a narrow lower calypter that diverges away from the scutellum and some distinctive features of the genitalia. The body is rather flattened and the eyes can be strongly patterned. Some species are strikingly patterned on the body. Some are metallic colored.
A fairly large family (about 376 species) arranged in about 30 genera, mostly in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Australian regions but also the southern part of the Palaearctic region. The family includes ~150 species in 16 genera recorded from the Afrotropical Region.
Some species have larvae developing in the egg pods of Orthoptera. Others develop in termite nests. Females are oviparous.


Description of Isomyia
The species of genus Isomyia are generally medium-sized to large and green, blue, or purple in colour, sometimes with copper tinge or dustings.
Recorded from South Africa are:
Isomyia deserti
Isomyia dubiosa
Isomyia eos
Isomyia longicauda
Isomyia natalensis
Isomyia oculosa
Isomyia pubera
Isomyia transvaalensis
Isomyia tristis

[Klipspringer]

Giant Robber Fly Possibly Promachus sp.
Superfamily Asiloidea Family Asilidae. Subfamily Asilinae. Tribe Apocleini

Promachus sp.jpg (93.33 KiB) Viewed 1086 times

Bela-Bela, Limpopo © harrys


Diagnosis:
Antennae usually widely separated. In some species, the males have a white tip to the abdomen.

Promachus is a very large genus of medium to large sized robber flies. 89 species occur in the Afrotropics in forest, woodland, savanna, fynbos or semi-deserts.
Adults perch on stones, within grass or at the tips of shrubs. Promachus are predators of mainly Hymenoptera (Apis mellifera) and Diptera (other flies and also other species of robber flies), but will sometimes also take Coleoptera, Hemiptera or Orthoptera.
Robberflies as adults are aerial predators that wait in ambush until an insect flies past and then fly up, grab hold of it and tumble to the ground where the fly subdues the prey by penetrating the body with its stout proboscis and injecting saliva that contains neurotoxins that kill as well as proteolytic enzymes that break down the body contents. It then sucks out the contents.

[Klipspringer]

Bee-mimic Hover Fly Eumerus sp.
Family Syrphidae. Subfamily Eristalinae. Tribe Merodontini (=Eumerini).

Eumerus.jpg (51.43 KiB) Viewed 1068 times

Nelspruit © Richprins
Species in the subfamily Eristalinae are often misidentified as bees instead of flies due to their exceptional mimicry, especially to resemble bees (family Apidae). The best strategy for proper identification is to look carefully at their eyes and wings. This species with golden legs mimics the pollen loads on the tibia on the hind legs of certain species of bees.


Syrphidae (hover fies) is a large dipteran family whose members have evolved to mimic different species of Hymenoptera, such as wasps and bees. The genus Eumerus is widely distributed in the Palaearctic, Afrotropical, Oriental, and Australian regions, with more than 250 described species. The Afrotropical region holds more than 70 species of Eumerus with most of them not described yet.

Some species are known as pests, since their larval stages are associated with a variety of commercially grown plants. Larvae of all species, when known, are associated with various bulbs and tubers, although they may also develop in fruits and damaged or decaying parts of succulent plants.

Adult Eumerus are usually inconspicuous, blackish fies that are most often observed hovering just above vegetation.
Members of this genus are recognizable by the recurrent M1 vein, as well as their usually blackish or blackish-red appearance with light pollinose markings on the abdominal tergites. They are generally medium-sized flies, with a distinctive habitus showing strong metalegs and a rounded
or broadly oval abdomen.
Adults are known as flower visitors and may be expected to be significant pollinators.

[ExFmem]

Flesh Fly Chauliooestrus denudatus (Villeneuve, 1921)*
Superfamily Oestroidea. Family Sarcophagidae. Subfamily Paramacronychiinae
* ID by Dr. Thomas Pape (Natural History Museum of Denmark)


Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park by ExF

The genus Chauliooestrus has remained enigmatic since its description by Villeneuve in 1925. Villeneuve himself obviously favoured a
sarcophagid ancestry but placed the genus in 'les Tachino-Oestrides', an assemblage of species that he considered Bot fly-like. Pape revised the genus and placed it in the Sarcophagidae, subfamily Miltogrammatinae. Now it belongs to Paramacronychiinae.
The subfamily Paramacronychiinae generally contains medium-sized species. Most species are densely covered with grayish or light brown microtomentum with a more or less distinct abdominal pattern consisting of a median stripe and dark lateral spots.

Identification of Chauliooestrus denudatus
Size: 8.5-10 mm. Eyes bare and small. Thorax black with grey microtomentum forming three indistinct stripes. Femora mainly blackish with grey microtomentum, tibiae and tarsi reddish. Wings hyaline. Abdomen black with extreme hind margins of tergites orange, grey microtomentum forming tessellate, changing pattern.
* Lunula projecting as a bilobed scale, overhanging antennal scape.
*Ocellar setae and prociinate orbital bristles not developed.
* Antennae short. First flagellomere 0,9-1,0 X as long as pedicel.
* Facial plate deeply sunk, pit-like, and facial ridges almost contiguous for a considerable distance below antennae.
*Reduced palps and proboscis.
*Vein M concave beyond bend. Lower calypter large.
*Length of claws 0,7 (2) and 1,0 (d') x as long as fifth tarsomere.



Biology
They are recorded as termite parasites. May be found in termite burrows.

Distribution
Recorded from Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania.

Links:
https://journals.co.za/content/annals/3 ... 040798_314
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ta_Diptera
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/KON_4_0048-0052.pdf

[Klipspringer]

Lauxaniid Fly Possibly Lauxania sp.
Family Lauxaniidae

Nelspruit © Richprins

The Afrotropical lauxaniid fauna comprises approximately 28 genera and at least 90 described species. Lauxaniids are generally small acalyptrate flies, which can be identified in the vast Afrotropical acalyptrate assemblage by, inter alia:
- their lack of vibrissae
- two reclinate fronto-orbital bristles
- decussate (cruciate) postvertical bristles
- complete subcosta, (e) lack of costal breaks
- dorsal pre-apical tibial bristles.

The lauxaniid fauna in sub-Saharan Africa, as elsewhere in the world, is found principally in forest, moist savannah and grassland, and shows low species richness and diversity in arid regions. Adults are usually found sitting on leaves. Larvae are decomposers that live in leaf litter, rotting trees, and dung. where they feed on microrganisms and fungi.

The genus Lauxania Latreille 1804 can be recognised by the following characteristics:
- body black;
- antenna with long 1st flagellomere, arista white;
- mesonotum with 1 + 3 dorsocentral setae;
- fore femur without comb anterior ventral setae, but with 4–5 posterior ventral setae;
- aedeagal complex with membranous process internally.

Many Lauxania flies are very small, shiny black, have striped eyes and long wings.

Recorded from South Africa: Lauxania atrovirens, L. chlorogastra, L. clypeata, L. metallica and L. oblonga.

[Klipspringer]

Old Man Bee-fly Geron (Geron) sp.
Family Bombyliidae. Subfamily Toxophorinae. Tribe Gerontini

Geron (Geron) Nelspruit.jpg (39.08 KiB) Viewed 1023 times

Nelspruit, Mpumalanga © Richprins

According to the key by Greathead and Evenhuis, the genus Geron is represented by only two subgenera in Southern Africa: Geron with 61 spp south of the Sahara and Pseudoammictus with 3 spp, all endemic to South Africa.
Only the members of the subgenus Geron have the thorax markedly humped.

Diagnosis Geron (Geron):
Base of cell r 4 (second submarginal) usually distal to apex of discal cell
Genae narrow and distance between eyes across oral cavity little wider than across face below antennae
Males holoptic
Spicules on tibiae present from near their bases
Thorax markedly humped and deep

Recorded from Mpumalanga:
G. (G.) cheilicterus (Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga); G. (G.) leptocerus (Lesotho, Mpumalanga); G. (G.) semifuscus (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Province, Western Cape).

Links:
https://journals.co.za/deliver/fulltext ... al/nmsa_ai
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/bombcat/worldcat1-new.pdf

[Klipspringer]

Spotted Satellite Fly Xiphidiella anorubra
Family Sarcophagidae. Subfamily Miltogramminae

Xiphidiella.jpg (114.97 KiB) Viewed 994 times

Feeding on spore mass of a fungus, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park © nan


Miltogramminae are small to medium-sized species with large eyes, broad lower calypteres and an oval or slightly tapering abdomen.

Genus Xiphidiella
- Eye hairy.
- Head length at vibrissa about equal to length at antennal insertion.
- Claws longer than fifth tarsomere in both sexes.
- Infrasquamal setae present.
- Abdominal tergites 3-4 each with a pattern of distinct black spots.
- Male abdominal tergite 6 reduced.
- Terminalia (partly) reddish.
Nothing is known about their biology.

Diagnosis Xiphidiella anorubra
Size: 7 to 9 mm
Thorax with silvery microtomentum and three large black medio-longitudinal bands.
Wings hyaline, halteres brown.
Abdomen with silvery to yellowish microtomentum, three dorsal rows of oval black spots on tergites II to IV (the spot in the middle has a triangular shape) and two rows of lateral spots.
Terminalia reddish orange.

Distribution: South Africa, Namibia, Angola


Links:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ite ... 6/mode/1up
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Stuttgarter- ... 1-0005.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 9/download