Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Apiocera - Flower-loving flies

Fly in the Mojave - Apiocera Robber Fly - Apiocera painteri - male Apiocerid from Lower Colorado River - Apiocera - male Apioceridae or Asilidae? - Apiocera - male Apio from mouth of Nine-Mile Canyon - Apiocera - female Apiocera? - Apiocera - male Apiocera? - Apiocera - male Apiocera? - Apiocera - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Superfamily Asiloidea
Family Apioceridae
Genus Apiocera (Flower-loving flies)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
revised in (1)
Explanation of Names
Apiocera Westwood 1835
'pear-horn', refers to the shape of antennomere 3
Numbers
48 spp. in our area (all in the subg. Pyrocera), >140 spp. in 4 subgenera total(2)
Identification
Males are easily recognized by their pair of large, dark, bulbous, hemitergites (the dorsolateral covering of the terminalia arising as lateral posterior projections of the ninth tergite(1)).
Females have short, tapering, cylindrical sclerites near the end of the abdomen, the tip covered by numerous, stout, outwardly-radiating, spines.
Some species have distinctive abdominal markings, but for most species ID must be confirmed via examination of male terminalia, visible by properly spreading hemitergites (see here)
Range
each subgenus in a diff. region, with Australia having the largest species number of any continent; in NA, western (mosly sw.US)(2)
Print References
Cazier M. (1985) New species and notes on flies belonging to the genus Apiocera (Diptera, Apioceridae). Am. Mus. Novitates 2837: 1-28. (Full text)
Wharton R.A. (1983) The biology of Apiocera haruspex Osten Saken (Diptera: Apioceridae) in central California, and comparison with other Asiloidea. Pan-Pac. Entomol. 58: 296-301
Internet References