Odiniidae

Odinia cf. boletina, copyright Pristurus.

Belongs within: Schizophora.

The Odiniidae are a group of flies closely associated with trees; life histories are poorly known but those with known larvae are often associated with galleries of wood-boring beetles. They have been divided between the subfamilies Odiniinae, in which the frons is flat to slightly concave and the face is distinctly angulate with the frons in profile, and Traginopinae, in which the frons is more or less arched and the frons and face are more or less in line or sloping (Gaimari 2010).

Characters (from McAlpine 1987): Small, compact, strongly bristled flies, 3–4 mm long; body dull gray, with brown markings; legs stout, with banded tibiae; wings with few to many brownish spots. Head about as broad as thorax, distinctly higher than long. Frons nearly as broad as long, of same width in both sexes, slightly narrower at lunule than at vertex; interfrontal area very sparsely and finely setulose; fronto-orbital plate more or less continuous from vertex to lunule; ocellar plate normal to unusually prominent.Inner vertical bristle usually stronger than outer vertical; postocellar bristles strongly divergent; ocellar bristles arising on margins of ocellar plate distinctly posteriorly to (above) anterior ocellus; fronto-orbital plate with two reclinate bristles above and one medio-reclinate bristle below; lunule broadly exposed, bare. Face somewhat concave, bare, uniformly sclerotized; median carina weak to absent; parafacial sublinear. Clypeus small and withdrawn to relatively large and prominent; cheek rather broad; vibrissa strong; subvibrissal bristles decreasing in size posteriorly; gena with one to several genal bristles and numerous subvibrissal setulae. Compound eye nearly round to somewhat horizontally oval, bare. Antenna short and porrect, usually predominantly orange yellow; scape very short, with few fine setulae; pedicel shallowly notched on dorsal margin, with numerous fine marginal setulae and a bristle near margin of inner dorsal surface; first flagellomere about as broad as long, with rounded apex; arista shortly pubescent (sometimes plumose). Proboscis short, with well-developed labella; palpus relatively large, somewhat flattened, frequently at least partly orange yellow, with numerous black setulae. Thorax brownish in ground color, patterned with dense gray and brown pruinescence. Scutum rather short and broad, not strongly arched; prescutellum present or absent; scutellum large, with convex disc; subscutellum moderately well-developed. One or three postpronotal bristles, one presutural and three or four postsutural dorsocentral bristles, one prescutellar acrostichal bristle, one to several postsutural intra-alar bristles, one postsutural supra-alar bristle, two postalar bristles, and one lateral and one subapical scutellar bristle present; disc with or without discal setulae; notopleuron with two bristles; propleuron bare on disc; one proepisternal bristle present; proepimeral bristle absent or present; katepisternum with a dorsal row of two to four strong katepisternal bristles and some finer setulae; anepisternum bare or bristled; remaining pleural sclerites without bristles or setulae. Prosternum free, bare. Wing rather short and broad, with well-developed anal angle and alula, variously patterned with brown spots. C extending to M₁ or ending at R₄₊₅, with subcostal break only, weakened but not broken in vicinity of costagial break; costal spines absent. Sc incomplete. Base of R bare; R₁ ending close to subcostal break and well before middle of wing; cells bm and dm present and separated by crossvein bm-cu; crossvein r-m joining M well beyond middle of cell dm; crossvein dm-cu usually present, sometimes obsolescent or absent. Cell cup convexly closed. A₁ not attaining wing margin. Upper calypter moderately developed, whitish with concolorous margin and fringe; fringe uniform in length; lower calypter linear. Halter entirely whitish. Legs rather short and stout, usually extensively yellowish. Fore femur with posterodorsal and posteroventral series of bristles; mid femur without strong bristles; hind femur enlarged in males, with one or more anteroventral bristles on apical half. Tibiae usually with alternating brownish and yellow bands; preapical dorsal tibial bristle weak to moderately strong, strongest on mid tibia; mid and hind tibiae with strong apicoventral bristles. Tarsi simple, mostly yellowish. Abdomen rather short and broad, usually grayish pruinose, patterned with contrasting brown pruinose spots. Male with six or seven spiracles. Sternite 5 relatively large and unmodified; sternites 6 and 7 greatly reduced and shifted into left side of abdomen, partially fused with each other and with remnants of segment 8. Tergite 6 reduced to narrow strip or absent; tergite 7 relatively well-developed, bare; syntergosternite 8 larger than tergite 7, setulose posteriorly or bare. Epandrium higher than long in lateral view, setulose, sometimes with strong bristles, with a surstylus-like posteroventral lobe arising either anterior or posterior to surstylus. Surstylus large or greatly reduced, articulated, not fused, with lower margin of epandrium. Hypandrium with anterior margin projecting far forward; gonopod in form of a low shoulder-like lobe bearing specialized setulae; parameres relatively free and process-like; aedeagal apodeme unusually long, strongly sclerotised, rodlike; ejaculatory apodeme not evident. Female with all segments beyond segment 5 modified. Tergite 6 much smaller than previous tergites but otherwise normal; sternite 6 entire to more or less tripartite, with an elongate median and a shorter lateral plate on each side; sixth spiracle in membrane between tergite 6 and sternite 6. Tergite 7 consisting of a bare relatively heavily sclerotised basal portion and a setulose but largely membranous apical portion; basal portion deeply emarginate to entirely divided dorsally; sides extending laterally well onto ventral surface, and enclosing seventh spiracle in ventral margin; sternite 7 likewise with a very small bare relatively heavily sclerotised anterior plate and a setulose but membranous posterior part. Segment 8 tubular and membranous, with a few setulae on both dorsal and ventral surfaces near apex; cerci completely separate, rather long and slender with long hair-like setulae; epiproct and hypoproct distinct and plate-like, with a variety of hairs and setulae. Two sclerotised dome-like spermathecae usually present. Larva whitish, slender, subcylindrical, with 11 body segments and a small cephalic segment. Cephalopharyngeal skeleton with hypopharyngeal and tentoropharyngeal sclerites separated, parastomal bars and simple mandibles present. Anterior spiracle palmate, with 5–12 short papillae projecting marginally from expanded apex of spiracular stalk. Ventral creeping welts with transverse rows of small spines present on abdominal segments 2–7 only; central spines on each welt larger than others. Posterior spiracles very small, situated on shoft outgrowths from one prominence or from a partially united pair of dome-shaped prominences on the terminal abdominal segment.

<==Odiniidae G10
    |--Odiniinae G10
    |    |--Neoalticomerus seamansi G10
    |    |--Afrodinia medleri M87, G10
    |    |--Protodinia electrica M87
    |    |--Turanodinia M87
    |    |    |--T. coccidarum G10
    |    |    |--T. stackelbergi G10
    |    |    `--T. tisciae G10
    |    `--Odinia G10
    |         |--O. betulae G10
    |         |--O. boletina G10
    |         |--O. coronata G10
    |         |--O. czernyi G10
    |         |--O. foliata G10
    |         |--O. formosipennis O98
    |         |--O. maculata M87
    |         |--O. meijerei G10
    |         |--O. ornata G10
    |         |--O. rossi G10
    |         `--O. xanthocera G10
    `--Traginopinae G10
         |--Neotraginops clathratus G10
         |--Neoschildomyia fusca G10
         |--Pradomyia hadromera G10
         |--Shewellia agromyzina G10
         |--Paratraginops G10
         |    |--P. pilicornis G10
         |    `--P. plaumanni G10
         |--Lopesiodinia G10
         |    |--L. alvarengai G10
         |    `--L. diversa G10
         |--Helgreelia G10
         |    |--H. albeto G10
         |    |--H. gaimarii G10
         |    `--H. parkeri G10
         |--Traginops G10
         |    |--T. irroratus [=T. irrorata] G10
         |    |--T. orientalis O98
         |    |    |--T. o. orientalis O98
         |    |    `--T. o. naganensis O98
         |    `--T. purpurops G10
         `--Schildomyia G10
              |--S. brevihirta G10
              |--S. punctifrons G10
              |--S. reticulata G10
              |--S. trinidadensis G10
              `--S. vittithorax G10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[G10] Gaimari, S. D. 2010. Odiniidae (odiniid flies). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 2 pp. 1049–1055. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[M87] McAlpine, J. F. 1987. Odiniidae. In: McAlpine, J. F. (ed.) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 2 pp. 863–867. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.

[O98] Oosterbroek, P. 1998. The Families of Diptera of the Malay Archipelago. Brill: Leiden.

Last updated: 2 July 2021.