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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

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Species Americina adusta

Representative Images

Dung Fly - Americina adusta Dung Fly - Americina adusta Dung Fly - Americina adusta Scathophagidae - Americina adusta Unknown Fly - Americina adusta Cordilura scapularis? - Americina adusta Scathophagidae, frontal - Americina adusta Scathophagidae, dorsal - Americina adusta

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Calyptratae)
Superfamily Muscoidea
Family Scathophagidae (Dung Flies)
Subfamily Delininae
Genus Americina
Species adusta (Americina adusta)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Cordylura adusta Loew, 1863
Americina adusta (Loew, 1863)
Ozerov (2010) moved this species to Cordilura, but molecular data shows that it does in fact belong to subamily Delininae and is not closely related to Cordilura (e.g. Kutty et al. 2007).

Identification

Head, thorax, and legs largely pale with 2 black stripes on the mesonotum, a black stripe on the pleura below the wing base, and blackened tarsi. Scutellum with 2 pairs of strong bristles. A1 vein reaching the wing margin. Apex of wing (but not usually crossveins) infuscated. Mid femur of male with many stout black ventral spines.

Range

Eastern USA and adjacent Canada

See Also

Similar looking species in Cordilura (Cordilurina) (for example, C. munda, C. scapularis) have only one pair of strong scutellar bristles (the apical scutellars are reduced), and many have a short A1 vein that doesn't reach the wing margin. Leptopa vittata is similar but lacks strong black bristles on its legs and the wings aren't infuscated.

Print References

Kutty, S.N., Bernasconi, M.V., Šifner, F. and Meier, R. 2007. Sensitivity analysis, molecular systematics and natural history evolution of Scathophagidae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha: Calyptratae). Cladistics 23: 64-83. Full Text
Ozerov, A.L. 2010. Flies of the genus Parallelomma Becker in Strobl, 1894 (Diptera, Scathophagidae) of Russia. Russian Entomological Journal 18 (4): 309–317 [in Russian, with English summary]. Full Text.