Africa Wild Insect Book Flies (Diptera)

[Klipspringer]

Hoverfly Allograpta cf. calopus
Family: Syrphidae. Subfamily: Syrphinae. Tribe: Syrphini

© ExFmem
Kruger National Park

Distribution
Afrotropical region.

Links:
http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax ... xid=386086
https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/han ... sAllowed=y

[ExFmem]

Migrant Hoverfly Eupeodes corollae (Fabricius, 1794)
Family: Syrphidae. Subfamily: Syrphinae




Kgalagadi TP by ExF (male)


Description
Adults are 6–11 mm in body length. Wingspan: 10-12 mm.
The thorax is monochrome brown, the scutellum almost yellow and hairy. Femora black basally. The eyes are hairless, the antennae are brown.
Tergites normally with spots, sometimes connected to bands. Males and females have different markings on the abdomen; the yellow 'commas' on the male are often quadrate and frequently merge together on tergites 3 and 4. In the female the commas are narrower. In both sexes, the yellow commas extend to the extreme lateral margins of the tergites.

Distribution
Eupeodes corollae is one of the most common hoverflies with a worldwide distribution, whose adults are often migratory. It is found across Europe, North Africa and Asia, and has been introduced to South Africa where it is common.

Habitat
It can turn up in almost any open habitat: Fynbos, patches of flowers in fields, road verges, gardens.

Biology
Eupeodes corollae is a worldwide natural enemy of aphids and are important biological control agents due to their rapid dispersal and absence of summer diapause compared with other aphidophaga.

Reproduction: When a male has found a female, the mating begins in flight and continues in the vegetation or on the ground. Females lay up to 1000 eggs. The larval stage of this species is mostly insectivorous, feeding mainly on aphids, and a single larvae can suck out more than 800 aphids. In Eurasia more than 60 different species of aphids and related insects are known as prey of the E. corollae larvae. The larva grows for about 10 days (depending on the temperature) and then pupate. After another 8-9 days the adult hatches. In Central Europe there are several (up to 4-6) generations per year. The adults are pollinators.

Links:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/fl ... rollae.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo ... insula.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _of_genera

[Klipspringer]

Bombyliid Bee Fly Phthiria sp.
Family: Bombyliidae. Subfamily: Phthiriinae.

© ExFmem


© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

[Klipspringer]

Bee-fly Apolysis sp.
Family: Bombyliidae. Subfamily: Usiinae. Tribe: Apolysini

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, MataMata camp

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

This species looks like the Apolysis sp., figure 2, page 1020, Manual of Afrotropical Diptera, Volume 2: Nematocerous Diptera and Lower Brachycera Ashley H. Kirk-Spriggs and Bradley J. Sinclair (eds.) 2017

Description
Tiny narrow-bodied flies smaller than 3 mm.
Wing without vein M2 (3 posterior cells). Wing cell dm open or closed by crossvein dm-m.
Antennal flagellum with subapical sulcus containing stylus.

[Klipspringer]

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

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, MataMata camp

Explanation of Name:
Ancient Greek γέρων (gérōn): 'old man' (imagine a humpbacked man carrying a cane), due to the humpbacked appearance.

Geron is a cosmopolitan genus with 64 species from the Afrotropical region.
3 species recorded from Southern Africa: ; Geron (P.) bezzii Paramonov, G. (P.) heteropterus Wiedemann, G. (P.) luctuosus Bezzi.

Larvae are endoparasitoids in the pupae of Lepidoptera, including Psychidae, Pyralidae and Sesiidae. (The vast majority of Bombyliidae are ectoparasitoid; endoparasitoids are known in only three tribes belonging to the Toxophorinae, Gerontini and Systropodini and Anthracinae, Villini). Geron species parasitise larvae and pupae of Lepidoptera which develop in concealed habitats (stem borers, leaf rollers, bagworms).


Genus Geron Meigen
Description
Not mimics of Hymenoptera!
Many species of Geron are similar in outward appearance. They need dissection to determine species. There are 64 species in Africa (most in southern Africa).
Head: Male eyes holoptic; female eyes dichoptic; front in male small, triangular, with shining white or silver­white scales, hair normally wanting; antennal flagellum with subapical sulcus containing stylus; antenna black, scape cylindrical, one and one­half to three times the length of pedicel; pedicel about as wide as long; first flagellomere narrow, elongate, tapering from broadened base to acuminate apex; style minute, apical; proboscis narrow, elongate, extending beyond oral margin one and one­half to two times the head height; palpus short, one­segmented.
Thorax: Mesonotum convex giving a hump­backed appearance to the habitus in profile; scutellum without bristles. Thorax not elongate. Body with fine setulae and scattered scales, usually whitish or brownish. Legs thin, tibiae and tarsi with small setae; fore tibial bristles usually minute; females with or without specialized palynophilic setae on fore tarsi; legs with white hair and scales; pulvilli present, about as long as claws.
Abdomen: Tubular, tapering from base to narrowed apex; slightly broader in females, narrower in males; both sexes with eight visible segments.
Wing: Hyaline to slightly infumate, with two submarginal and three posterior cells; anal cell closed at or slightly before wing margin; crossvein r­m at or beyond middle of cell dm; second submarginal cell short, about as long as apical width; crossvein m­cu sinuous, occasionally straight); anal lobe moderately developed.

Geron wings. 27, G. nigripes Painter. 28, G. rufipes Macquart..png (41.74 KiB) Viewed 2472 times

Geron subgenus Pseudoammictus
Base of cell r 4 (second submarginal) more or less level with apex of discal cell; genae broad and distance between eyes across oral cavity much wider than across face below antennae; males dichoptic, eyes separated by at least width of median ocellus; spicules on tibiae confined to apical halves; thorax not markedly humped and deep

The subgenus Pseudoammictus is endemic to South Africa/Lesotho with 3 species recorded:
G. Pseudoamictus bezzii (Western Cape & Northern Cape); G. (P.) heteropterus (Western Cape); G. (P.) luctuosus (Lesotho).



Links:
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/bombcat/worldcat1-new.pdf
http://treatment.plazi.org/id/FB38C637F ... 10DB84FB5A

[Klipspringer]

Bee-fly Apolysis sp.
Family Bombyliidae. Subfamily Usiinae. Tribe Apolysini

© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Mata Mata, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, 2017


Link:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/pag ... 3/mode/1up

[Klipspringer]

Root Maggot Flower Flies sp Species of Anthomyia
Family: Anthomyiidae

Anthomyia flies are small (wingspan 10mm) have eyes without pubescence and a flat face, they resemble a slender house fly in build, but most often have contrasting silvery grey and black patterns across the body. Larvae breed in rotting organic matter.
Griffiths recognised six sections of Anthomyia, but only two of these sections occur in the Afrotropical Region, the A. punctipennis section (dorsal surface of thorax not strongly patterned; wing with distinct patches or bands of clouding on both crossveins) and the A. pluvialis section (dorsal surface of thorax strongly patterned).

Species in the A. pluvialis section can be distinguished from other Anthomyiidae (but not all Muscidae) by the strongly contrasting black and white pattern on the thorax with two spots at front (on the prescutum) and three spots or a band in the middle (on the scutum).
Amongst the Anthomyiidae then these boldly patterned species are supposedly easy to place in the genus Anthomyia but must first be told apart from some of the Muscidae which superficially look very similar such as the genus Limnophora.

The A. pluvialis section contains several superspecies, recorded from the subregion:
- A. pluvialis superspecies
- A. ornata superspecies
- A. amoena superspecies
- A. abyssinica superspecies

Links:
Dipetera.info - Photo Gallery Anthomyiidae
https://journals.co.za/content/nmsa_ai/42/1/EJC84479
https://journals.co.za/docserver/fullte ... 6C72B160DC

[Klipspringer]

Root Maggot Flower Fly sp Anthomyia amoena
Infraorder Muscomorpha, Superfamily Muscoidea, Family Anthomyiidae

© ExFmem
Female, Kruger National Park

Anthomyia amoena is recorded from almost all over South Africa and there are records from the Kruger National Park.

Description
Male:
Colour: Thorax with contrasting black and silvery grey pattern on dorsal surface; transverse postsutural band across the scutum complete between
wing bases; presutural spots generally joined behind head, forming a rectangular spot which is indented medially on posterior margin, and in some specimens the spots are not joined but remain separate; scutellum black on basal two-thirds, with silvery grey tip extending along lateral margins (occasionally scutellum entirely dark).
Abdomen with contrasting black and grey pattern on tergites (black central vitta on 3rd and 4th tergite nearly as wide as hind femur (anteriorly
wider and joined to a narrow black band which expands into a smallish triangular spot laterally); pregenital sclerite contrastingly shining brownish black (undusted).
Wing membrane slightly brownish grey tinged, with orange-brown veins; squamae whitish with whitish fringes; halteres yellow. Legs entirely dark brown to orange.
Female:
Colour: Thoracic pattern very similar to that of male. Abdomen with black and grey pattern on abdominal tergites similar to that of male (with central black marks often triangular (wide basally). Legs dark or orange as in male.


Links:
Dipetera.info - Photo Gallery Anthomyiidae
https://journals.co.za/content/nmsa_ai/42/1/EJC84479
https://journals.co.za/docserver/fullte ... 6C72B160DC

[Klipspringer]

Bombyliid Bee Fly Bombylella sp.
Family: Bombyliidae. Subfamily: Bombyliinae. Tribe: Bombyliini

© ExFmem
Kruger National Park

[Klipspringer]

Woolly Bee Flies Systoechus, Australoecus and Anastoechus spp
Family: Bombyliidae Subfamily: Bombyliinae. Tribe: Bombyliini

There are three similar looking bee-fly genera in the Bombyliini: Systoechus, Australoecus and Anastoechus

Tribe Bombyliini:
Wing cell dm broadest near middle; radial sector (Rs) not enlarged, with costal vein (C) more or less straight along anterior margin. Midlegs without tibial spurs.

Wings.jpg (123.23 KiB) Viewed 2404 times