Rhinophoridae

Bezzimyia bisecta, copyright Centre for Biodiversity Genomics.

Belongs within: Calliphoridae.

The Rhinophoridae, woodlouse flies, are a group of calyptrate flies that develop as internal parasitoids of woodlice (Pape 2010). The body of the first instar larva carries encircling tubercles that may act as pseudopods, used by the larva to wedge itself between the sternites of its host (Wood 1987a).

Characters (from Pape 2010): Small to medium-sized (body length 3.5–8 mm) calyptrate flies. Body colour mostly brown or blackish-brown, more rarely partly or almost entirely yellow. Antenna with first flagellomere varying from short to longer than eye height; concolorous with body or strongly contrasting orange; sometimes lobate in male. Male dichoptic and with neither proclinate or reclinate orbital bristles, or semi-holoptic with fronto-orbital plates almost entirely occluded at vertex but frontal stripe only moderately narrowed. Female without proclinate orbital bristles (some species with setulae that may be reduced orbitals). Head with receding vibrissal angle (i.e. head moderately or distinctly shorter at level of vibrissa than at level of antennal insertion). Vibrissa indistinct or accompanied by long genal setae. Proboscis short; length at most slightly more than greatest diameter of fore coxa. Wing membrane hyaline, darkened along veins, fumose with white wing tip, or with various patterns of fumose bands. Vein Sc normal or with indistinct or no median concavity, i.e. mostly parallel to vein R₁. Vein M various, ending freely in wing membrane, reaching costa at wing margin, or joining vein R₄₊₅ well before wing tip. One case of female aptery known, with wings reduced to halterlike stumps. Legs with foretarsus unmodivided or laterally compressed in one or both sexes. Subscutellum moderately swollen. Abdomen oval or elongate oval. Male terminalia with cerci with separate prongs, phallus with dorsolateral processes that often have free tips. Female terminalia telescopic, cerci elongate. Egg fusiform with blunt ends, flattened dorsal side and dorsomedian plastron running full length of egg. Chorion with rugged longitudinal ridges running full length of egg and entire surface pitted with small hexagons. Plastron with somewhat irregular, delicate hexagonal meshwork. First instar larva with distinct segmentation, head with long and apparently two-segmented antenna, cephalopharyngeal skeleton with long anterior rod, mouth hooks toothed, labrum absent. Most segments encircled by setae, integument encrusted with small scale-like spines. Abdominal segment 8 equipped with terminal pair of processes having broad, vesicular bases and tapering into long slender filaments.

<==Rhinophoridae [Melanophorinae, Rhinophorinae] P10
    |--+--Stevenia SC19
    |  |    |--S. atramentaria (Meigen 1824) KP10
    |  |    |--S. deceptoria SC19
    |  |    |--S. hertingi Kugler 1978 KP10
    |  |    `--S. subpellucida F92
    |  `--Rhinomorinia sarcophagina SC19
    `--+--Phyto SC19
       |    |--P. discrepans W87a
       |    `--P. melanocephala WT11
       `--+--Paykullia maculata SC19
          `--Melanophora roralis (Linnaeus 1758) SC19, L58 [=Musca roralis G20]

Rhinophoridae incertae sedis:
  Rhinophora lepida (Linnaeus 1824) W87a, KP10
  Parafeburia maculata A71
  Trypetidomima lutea P10
  Bequaertiana PG-M04
  Shannoniella cuspidata P10
  Tricogena rubricosa [=Frauenfeldia rubricosa] W87a
  Microtarsina W87a
  Cirillia angustifrons W87a
  Malayia O98
  Bezzimyia P10
    |--B. americana W87b
    |--B. bisecta P10
    |--B. hansoni P10
    |--B. lapidicina P10
    |--B. ramicornis P10
    |--B. setifax P10
    |--B. sternothrix P10
    `--B. yepezi P10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A71] Askew, R. R. 1971. Parasitic Insects. Heinemann Educational Books: London.

[F92] Fan Z. 1992. Key to the Common Flies of China 2^nd ed. Science Press: Beijing.

[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.

[KP10] Kutty, S. N., T. Pape, B. M. Wiegmann & R. Meier. 2010. Molecular phylogeny of the Calyptratae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha) with an emphasis on the superfamily Oestroidea and the position of Mystacinobiidae and McAlpine's fly. Systematic Entomology 35: 614–635.

[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.

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

[P10] Pape, T. 2010. Rhinophoridae (woodlouse 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. 1337–1341. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[PG-M04] Peris, S. V., & D. González-Mora. 2004. Clave de identificación para los géneros de Calliphoridae del mundo. Subfamilias con vena remigium desnuda y creación de una nueva subfamilia. Bol. R. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. (Sec. Biol.) 99 (1–4): 115–144.

[SC19] Stireman, J. O., III, P. Cerretti, J. E. O'Hara, J. D. Blaschke & J. K. Moulton. 2019. Molecular phylogeny and evolution of world Tachinidae (Diptera). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 139: 106358.

[WT11] Wiegmann, B. M., M. D. Trautwein, I. S. Winkler, N. B. Barr, J.-W. Kim, C. Lambkin, M. A. Bertone, B. K. Cassel, K. M. Bayless, A. M. Heimberg, B. M. Wheeler, K. J. Peterson, T. Pape, B. J. Sinclair, J. H. Skevington, V. Blagoderov, J. Caravas, S. N. Kutty, U. Schmidt-Ott, G. E. Kampmeier, F. C. Thompson, D. A. Grimaldi, A. T. Beckenbach, G. W. Courtney, M. Friedrich, R. Meier & D. K. Yeates. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108 (14): 5690–5695.

[W87a] Wood, D. M. 1987a. Rhinophoridae. In: McAlpine, J. F. (ed.) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 2 pp. 1187–1191. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.

[W87b] Wood, D. M. 1987b. Tachinidae. In: McAlpine, J. F. (ed.) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 2 pp. 1193–1269. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.

Last updated: 2 July 2021.