Diptera.info

Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 04-11-2006 17:10

Hi flyforum

* locality - Silgueiros - Viseu - PORTUGAL
* date - 1.11.2006
* size - ? MEDIUM fly (more than 5 mm)
* habitat - urban
* substrate - granite

Muscidae - right? Musca sp. Please provide me the reasons to specie level.

Thank you!
Hope you like it. ;) Muscidae airlines are a good company for acari. And they are all rich because they choose business class.. the most cheap class is on the back... where the smell is intense. :) sorry. ;)

Posted by Tony Irwin on 04-11-2006 20:44

Excellent photo! B)
This appears to be Musca domestica female. Bare eyes; four narrow dark thoracic stripes; frontal orbits about one-third the width of the interfrontalia. The diagnostic character is hairs on the propleural depression (=proepisternum) - not visible in this photo.
Incidentally your gallery photo of Musca autumnalis female is really Musca domestica also - the frontal orbits are much too narrow for autumnalis.
I'd say the mites are probably young trombiculids.

Posted by Stephen on 04-11-2006 21:13

Very nice image, jorge! Sharp and colorful and with the added interest of the mites.

I know with some beetles the mites are said to be "merely along for the ride," using the beetle as transportation to their food source such as carrion. I take it with flies the mites are actually feeding? Or does it happen both ways with flies?

Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 06-11-2006 23:11

Stephen wrote:
Very nice image, jorge! Sharp and colorful and with the added interest of the mites.

I know with some beetles the mites are said to be "merely along for the ride," using the beetle as transportation to their food source such as carrion. I take it with flies the mites are actually feeding? Or does it happen both ways with flies?

Acari can be do both. Phoresy and parasitism. But in parasitism there are just some acari that do it. Pseudoscorpions, for example, use them for phoresy. I saw one photo with a pseudoscorpion attached in a cranefly!

Posted by Robert Nash on 07-11-2006 14:13

Go to the Downloads page (See top banner) for Kleptoparasitism and phoresy in the Diptera an article from the Florida Entomologist.
Robert

Edited by Robert Nash on 07-11-2006 14:14