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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Acalyptratae" » Sphaeroceroidea » Lesser Dung Flies (Sphaeroceridae) » Limosininae » Leptocera

Genus Leptocera

small brown fly with red antenna knobs - Leptocera fulva

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon ("Acalyptratae")

Superfamily Sphaeroceroidea

Family Sphaeroceridae (Lesser Dung Flies)

Subfamily Limosininae

Genus Leptocera

Numbers

13 species in our area. (1)

Nearctic species: (1)

caenosa group

Leptocera caenosa (Rondani, 1880) - Cosmopolitan

Leptocera erratica Buck, 2009 - California, as well as Argentina, Australia, South Africa

Leptocera erythrocera (Becker, 1920) - most of North & South America, Hawaii

Leptocera sphaerotheca Buck, 2009 - AZ & TX to Panama

fontinalis group

Leptocera angulispina Buck, 2009 - Alaska & Yukon

Leptocera finalis (Collin, 1956) - northern Canada & Alaska; northern Palaearctic

Leptocera fontinalis (Fallen, 1826) - Eastern Canada into NE USA (NH); western & central Palaearctic

Leptocera kanata Buck, 2009 - northern Nearctic, transcontinental

Leptocera neofinalis Buck, 2009 - northern Nearctic, transcontinental

Leptocera neovomerata Buck, 2009 - western North America (AK-YT to WY-NM)

Leptocera parafinalis Papp, 1973 - western North America (AK-NU to AB-CO), Mongolia

Leptocera tenuispina Buck, 2009 - central BC

fulva group

Leptocera fulva (Malloch, 1912) - southern Florida; northern Mexico to Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil

Identification

The scutellum has 3 pairs of long bristles (plus one tiny one). This excludes almost all other Limosininae.

Range

Found worldwide, well represented in North & South America. (1)

Includes a cosmopolitan, synanthropic species (L. caenosa)

Remarks

Flies of this genus are among the most ubiquitous Sphaeroceridae in North America. Decaying substrates such as dung or carrion are visited to a certain degree by adults of some species, but only one species, L. caenosa, breeds in these kinds of substrates on a regular basis.

Internet References

Animal diversity

Works Cited

1.	Revision of New World Leptocera Olivier (Diptera, Sphaeroceridae) Buck, M. and S.A. Marshall. 2009. Zootaxa 2039: 1-139.

Contributed by Matthias Buck on 20 October, 2007 - 1:37pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Bbarnd, Vox Sciurorum, Arturo Santos
Last updated 14 February, 2021 - 1:56am

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