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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Acalyptratae" » Tephritoidea » Picture-winged Flies (Ulidiidae) » Otitinae » Cephaliini » Tritoxa

Genus Tritoxa

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Food · Works Cited
Tritoxa incurva? - Tritoxa incurva Tritoxa sp. help? - Tritoxa incurva - female Picture wing fly - Tritoxa incurva Picture Wing Fly - Tritoxa incurva Flower Fly? - Tritoxa flexa Tritoxa incurva - female Tritoxa? - Tritoxa incurva - female Unusual looking fly? - Tritoxa incurva - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon ("Acalyptratae")
Superfamily Tephritoidea
Family Ulidiidae (Picture-winged Flies)
Subfamily Otitinae
Tribe Cephaliini
Genus Tritoxa
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Revised in (1)
Explanation of Names
Tritoxa Loew 1873
Numbers
7 spp., all in our area(1)
Size
6‒10 mm
Identification
Key to species, adapted from (2)
1. Dm-cu straight to sinuate, never with stump; parafrontal pruinosity very narrow, not surrounding any bristles or hairs, only immediately adjacent to eye; anepisternum nearly wholly shining. → 2
Dm-cu angulate, sometimes with stump proceeding from angulation; parafrontal pruinosity broad, including area about base of frontal bristles; tip of cell Sc hyaline; supracervical hair patches yellowish. → 4
2. Black species, wings with black pattern, supracervical hair patch on back of head black; dm-cu sinuate; distal hyaline crossband of wing arcuate → T. flexa (Wiedemann)
Thorax brown, wings with brown pattern; supracervical hairs yellowish; dm-cu straight. → 3
3. Distal hyaline crossband of wing straight, attaining costa apicad of r-m → T. cuneata Loew species complex, see (1)
Distal hyaline crossband arcuate, attaining costa basad of r-m → T. incurva Loew
4. Parafrontal pruinosity extending but 1/4 distance from eye to midfrons; dm-cu with stump; pleura mostly shining, a little white-pruinose only above fore coxa; proximal hyaline crossband of wing continuous from 1st vein to wing margin. (Western) → T. ra Harriot
Parafrontal pruinosity extending from eye halfway to midfrons; dm-cu usually without stump; anepisternum largely yellowish pruinose; proximal hyaline crossband disjunct along R4+5. (Western) → T. pollinosa Cole
Range
Nearctic, widespread(1)
T. californica n.CA • T. ra s.CA/NV • T. pollinosa w.US
T. cuneata w.NA to SK‒TX • T. decipiens along the Rockies
T. flexa & T. incurva e.NA to SK
Food
T. flexa is associated with cultivated garlic; other spp., with grasses, based on BG photos.
Works Cited
1.Revision of the Nearctic genus Tritoxa Loew (Diptera: Ulidiidae)
Bradley J. Sinclair, Alyssa M. Macleod, Terry A. Wheeler. 2021. Zootaxa.
2.A key to the species of Tritoxa Loew (Diptera: Otitidae)
Steyskal G.C. 1967. Proc. ent. Soc. Wash. 69: 94.
Contributed by Cotinis on 12 September, 2004 - 12:47am
Additional contributions by john and jane balaban, Beatriz Moisset, Vox Sciurorum, v belov, Spencer_pote
Last updated 7 December, 2023 - 10:44pm

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