Genus Lispe

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Print References · Works Cited

Dull Fly Calls Forth Inner Clown - Lispe tentaculata

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon (Calyptratae)

Superfamily Muscoidea

Family Muscidae (House Flies and kin)

Subfamily Coenosiinae

Tribe Limnophorini

Genus Lispe

Explanation of Names

Lispe Latreille 1796

Numbers

~200 spp. total (Vikhrev 2014)

Identification

"Lispe is one of the more easily recognized genera of Nearctic Muscidae and can be readily distinguished by the rather large apically dilated palpi and setulose pteropleura. Aldrich (1913) has given an excellent enumeration of the various characters common to all species, and it need only be added that most Nearctic species possess one or more hairs on pre-episternum 3."(1)

Range

almost cosmopolitan(2)

Habitat

larvae in mud with organic content(2)

Food

larvae are obligate carnivores, adults prey on other insects(2)

Print References

Vikhrev, N. E. 2015. Taxonomic notes on Lispe (Diptera, Muscidae), parts 10-12. Amurian Zoological Journal 7(3): 228-247. (Archive.org)

Works Cited

1.	A review of nearctic Lispe Latreille (Diptera, Muscidae) Frederic Marhoff Snyder. 1954. American Museum of Natural History.

2.	Manual of Central American Diptera Brian V. Brown et al. 2009. NRC Research Press.

Contributed by Keith Bayless on 5 February, 2008 - 1:43am
Additional contributions by Vox Sciurorum, v belov, Arturo Santos
Last updated 6 January, 2023 - 12:44pm

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