Arthropoda: Insecta: Diptera: Diopsidae: Sphyracephala brevicornis [return to Home Page]

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Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Diptera: Diopsidae: Sphyracephala brevicornis
Common Name: “Short-horned Ankle-headed Fly”

Country: USA
State/District: VA
County: Fairfax
Date: 11 April 1999

Photographer: D. S. Kjar

Identifier: F. C. Thompson
Collector: E. M. Barrows

Location: Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve

Ecotone Trap 2

Keywords: A diopsid Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve DMWP fly Malaise trap
Additional Information:



Researchers rarely collect this nearctic fly species.   Dr. Oliver S. Flint (1956) perhaps found that largest group of these flies, a group of about 100 which were hibernating in a limestone crevice in New York.   Some Malaysian species of stalk-eyed flies have much longer eye stalks than S. brevicornis (Say).   In one Malaysian species, females select males with longer eye stalks as mates, and this results in these females' having a higher ratio of sons in a population with a high ratio of daughters (Wilkinson et al. 1998).



References

Feijen, H.R.   1989.   Diopsidae.   Pages 1–122 in G. C. D. Griffiths, ed.   Flies of the Nearctic Region.   Volume IX.   Cyclorrhapha III.   E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany.

Flint, O. S.   1956.   Hibernation of the diopsid fly, Sphyracephala brevicornis Say.   Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society   51: 44.

Peterson, B. V.   1987.   Diopsidae.   Chapter 61.   Pages 785–789 in J. F. McAlpine, B. V. Peterson, G. E. Shewell, H. J. Teskey, J. R. Vockeroth, & D. M. Wood, eds.   Manual of Nearctic Diptera.   Volume 2.   Biosystematics Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario.   1332 pp.

Wilkinson, G. S., D. C. Presgraves, and L. Crymes.   1998.   Male eye span in stalk-eyed flies indicates genetic quality by meiotic drive suppression.   Nature 391: 276–279.



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