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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Empidoidea » Longlegged Flies (Dolichopodidae) » Medeterinae » Medetera

Genus Medetera

Medetera??? - Medetera - female Robber/Assassin Fly? 3 - Medetera - female Dolichopodidae - Medetera - male Fly - Medetera - female woodpecker fly - Medetera - male Medetera Medetera? - Medetera - Medetera
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Superfamily Empidoidea
Family Dolichopodidae (Longlegged Flies)
Subfamily Medeterinae
Genus Medetera
Other Common Names
Woodpecker Flies
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
revised in(1)
Explanation of Names
Medetera Fischer von Waldheim 1819
Numbers
~50 spp. in our area, hundreds total
Identification
"The genus has a distinctive habitus, which with little practice is easily recognized, even by the unaided eye. In addition to its characteristic stance in life, the combination of the heavily sclerotized proboscis, strongly flattened mesoscutum, and the distinctive arch of both R4+5 and M enables one to spot the genus at a glance." (Bickel 1985)
Food
Larvae usually eat larvae of bark beetles (Scolytinae). Adults eat a wide variety of soft-bodied arthropods.
Internet References
Specimen images
Hunting behavior of M. jacula (Vikhrev 2007)
Works Cited
1.A revision of the Nearctic Medetera (Diptera, Dolichopodidae)
Bickel D.J. 1985. USDA Tech. Bull. 1692. 109 pp.
Contributed by tom murray on 5 October, 2005 - 7:24am
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Vox Sciurorum, v belov
Last updated 3 July, 2017 - 1:35pm

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