The Lauxaniidae are a family of
acalyptrateflies. They generally are small flies (length 7 mm or less) with large
compound eyes that often are brightly coloured in life, sometimes with characteristic horizontal stripes, such as in Cestrotus species. Many species have variegated patterns on their wings, but in contrast they generally do not have variegated bodies, except for genera such as Cestrotus, whose camouflage mimics lichens or the texture of granitic rocks.
Some 1800 species of Lauxaniidae have been described and they comprise some 126 genera. The family has a
cosmopolitan distribution, most of the species occurring in tropical regions of Asia and the Americas; relatively few species occur in
Afrotropical regions, and Lauxaniid species diversity declines strongly towards the more temperate regions; for example fewer than 200 European species have been described. Most species inhabit forests, where the adults usually are found sitting on leaves of the
understory. They are far less common in open country, such as
grassland habitats.[2]
Description
For terms, see
Morphology of Diptera
Lauxaniidae are small flies (2–7 mm in length). They are often rather plump, dull, or partly lustrous flies. The body colour varies from yellow to brown or black, or with a combination of these colours. The head is variable in shape, the face projecting or retreating, convex, flat or concave, usually without oral vibrissae (sometimes poorly developed, occasionally strong bristles near the vibrissal angle). The postvertical bristles converge (in rare cases parallel). The frons is wide, with two pairs of frontal bristles, the upper pair of which is always reclinate, the lower pair sometimes decussate. Interfrontal bristles are absent. The ocellar bristles are present or minute. The antennae are variable and the arista is plumose, pubescent to bare. The thorax has bristles, at least behind the suture. The scutellum is usually bare except for the marginal bristles. Propleural bristles are present or absent and one or two sternopleural bristles are seen. Tibiae all have a preapical bristle. The wings are marked or unmarked (in a number of species with spots along the veins). The wing venation is complete and the costa is continuous. The subcosta is entire and ends in the costa. The second basal and anal cells are short and the apical cell usually widely open. The abdomen is oval, rarely elongated.
Biology
The
larvae are mostly
saprophagous, feeding in
leaf litter, soil, bird nests, etc. Larvae of some mine fallen leaves, others live in rotten wood, and some cause deformation of the flowers and pistils of violets.
^Stuckenberg, B. R. (1971). "A review of the Old World genera of Lauxaniidae (Diptera)". Annals of the Natal Museum. 20 (3): 499–610.
^
abcIbáñez-Bernal, Sergio; Hernández-Ortiz, Vicente (2010). "76". In Brown, B.V.; Borkent, A.; Cumming, J.M.; Wood, D.M.; Woodley, N.E.; Zumbado, M. (eds.). Manual of Central American Diptera (Print). Vol. 2. Ottawa, Canada: NRC Research Press. pp. 1025–1030.
ISBN978-0-660-19958-0.
^
abcdefghiHendel, F. (1925). Neue Ubersicht uber die bisher bekannt gewordenen Gattungen der Lauxaniiden, nebst Beschreibung neuer Gattungen u. Arten. Arten. Encycl. Ent. (B II) Diptera. pp. 103–112.
^Malloch, John Russell (1929). "Exotic Muscaridae (Diptera).—XXVI". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 4 (10): 97–120.
doi:
10.1080/00222932908673032.
^
abcdePapp, L.; Silva, Vera.C. (1995). "Seven new genera of the Neotropical Lauxaniidae (Diptera)". Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 41 (3): 185–208.
^Шаталкин, Анатолий Иванович (2000). Определитель палеарктических мух семейства Lauxaniidae (Diptera) [Keys to the Palaearctic flies of the family Lauxaniidae (Diptera)] (Print) (in Russian). Vol. 5. Moscow: Zoologicheskie Issledovania. p. 102.
^SHI LI (China), DING YANG (China) & STEPHEN D. GAIMARI (USA). Species of the genus Cestrotus Loew from China (Diptera: Lauxaniidae) Zootaxa 2009: 41-68 (11 Feb. 2009) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition
^Gaimari, S.D. (2011). "An unusual new genus of eurychoromyiine Lauxaniidae (Diptera)". The Canadian Entomologist. 143 (6): 594–611.
doi:
10.4039/n11-039.
S2CID84395018.
^
abcdefghShewell, G.E. (1986). "New American genera of Lauxaniidae, based on species of earlier authors, and a note on Lyciella rorida (Fallen) in North America (Diptera)". The Canadian Entomologist. 118 (6): 537–547.
doi:
10.4039/Ent118537-6.
S2CID87063435.
^Robineau-Desvoidy, André Jean Baptiste (1830).
"Essai sur les myodaires". Mémoires presentés à l'Institut des Sciences, Lettres et Arts, par divers savants et lus dans ses assemblées: Sciences, Mathématiques et Physique. 2 (2): 1–813. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^Özdikmen, H.; Merz, B. (2006). "Neoparoecus nom. nov., a replacement name for the preoccupied genus name Paroecus Becker, 1895 (Diptera, Lauxaniidae". Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft (Print). 79 (1–2). Société Entomologique Suisse: 63–64.
^Stuckenberg, B.R. (1971). "A review of the Old World genera of Lauxaniidae (Diptera)". Annals of the Natal Museum (Print). 20 (3). Natal: the Natal Museum: 499–610.
^Evenhuis, Neal L.; Okadome, T. (1989).
"Family Lauxaniidae"(PDF). Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. Hawai'i': The Bishop Museum Press: 576–589. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
Evenhuis, N.L., and T. Okadome. 1989. Family Lauxaniidae, pp 576–589. In Evenhuis, N.L. (ed.), Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. E.J. Brill, Leiden. 1155 pp.
Identification
Czerny. 1932. Lauxaniidae.In: Lindner, E. (Ed.). Die Fliegen der Paläarktischen Region , 5, 50, 1-76. Keys to Palaearctic species but now needs revision (in German).
Papp, L. 1978a Contribution to the revision of Palaearctic Lauxaniidae (Diptera). Annales historico naturales Musei nationalis Hungarici 70: 213–231.
Papp, L. 1984. Lauxaniidae (Diptera), new Palaearctic species and taxonomic notes. Acta Zoologica Hungarica 30: 157–179.
Papp, L. & Shatalkin, A.I., 1998 Family Lauxaniidae. In: Papp, L. & Darvas, B. (Eds.), Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Volume 3, Higher Brachycera. Science Herald Publishers, Budapest, pp. 383–400
Séguy, E. (1934) Diptères: Brachycères. II. Muscidae acalypterae, Scatophagidae. Paris: Éditions Faune de France 28.
virtuelle numérique
Shatalkin, A.I. 2000. Keys to the Palaearctic flies of the family Lauxaniidae (Diptera). Zoologicheskie Issledovania 5: 1–102.
Shtakel'berg, A.A. Family Lauxaniidae in
Bei-Bienko, G. Ya, 1988 Keys to the insects of the European Part of the USSR Volume 5 (Diptera) Part 2 English edition.Keys to Palaearctic species but now needs revision .