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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Xylophagidae

Family Xylophagidae

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Works Cited
fly - Xylophagidae - Xylophagus lugens - female Fly - Xylophagus lugens - female Xylophagus reflectens? - Xylophagus reflectens - male - female Rachicerus - Rachicerus obscuripennis - female Xylophagidae, Xylophagus perhaps lugens, under tree bark - Xylophagus awl fly - Dialysis Mating flies - Dialysis elongata - male - female Dialysis elongata - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Family Xylophagidae
Other Common Names
Awl-Flies (iNaturalist)
Explanation of Names
Xylophagidae Fallén 1810
Numbers
23 spp. in 6 genera in our area(1), ~150 spp. in 15 genera total(2)
Size
2-25 mm(1)
Identification
Wing venation:
Range
much of the world (none in the Afrotropical Region)(3); mostly northern NA(1)
Habitat
Typically woodlands; larvae on decaying vegetation, under bark, or in decaying wood(1)
Food
Adults sometimes take nectar and other fluids(1)
Larvae eat other insect larvae.(4)
Unlike the translation of their name, neither the adults nor the larvae feed on wood.(4)
Life Cycle
Larvae scavengers or predators(1). Xylophagus larvae may prey on bark beetle larvae
Remarks
Possibly sister to the Tabanomorpha
Works Cited
1.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
2.Order Diptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification...
Pape T., Blagoderov V., Mostovski M.B. 2011. Zootaxa 3148: 222–229.
3.A catalog of the World Xylophagidae (Insecta: Diptera)
Woodley N.E. 2011. Myia 12: 455–500.
4.Hidden Company that Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips
James B. Nardi. 2023. Princeton University Press.
Contributed by john and jane balaban on 19 September, 2004 - 2:30pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Keith Bayless, v belov, marcie oconnor, Marci Hess, Arturo Santos, zdanko
Last updated 11 June, 2024 - 8:18am

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