Taxonomic study of saprophagous Megaselia species (Diptera: Phoridae) in Taiwan
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Wu, Tsung-Hsueh
Abstract
Phorid flies are common insects that can be easily found in many different habitats, but they are seldom noticed due to their small size and limited information in Taiwan. Behaviors of phorid flies are highly diverse, including saprophagous, parasitoid, parasite, flower visiting, fungivory, plant-feeding, predator and inquiline, most of them are saprophagous. Saprophagous species may have forensic significance since they could be found on the underground corpses, parasitoid species might be used in biocontrol, and fungivory species might cause economic damage. Though there have some wingless species, most of the phorid flies can be readily recognized by their distinctive wing venation, costal and radial veins are thicken and shorten, medial and anal veins are fine and seldom reach the radial veins. Another special character of phorid flies is the greatly enlarged antennal flagellum swelling on the pedicel. There are more than 3,700 phorid species in the world. Previous studies recorded 69 species belonging to 17 genera in Taiwan, and 40 species belong to Megaselia, the largest genus in Phoridae. These researches were mostly contributed during 1910 to 1940 by Brues and Schmirz, and some were accomplished in 1960 to 1970 by Borgmeier. Until now, there have only a few studies of Taiwanese phorid flies. We hereby proposed a taxonomic study of the phorid species in Taiwan. We mainly used pork liver as lure to attract and collect phorid flies, and so far, species belong to 5 genera were collected (i.e. Diplonevra, Dohrniphora, Megaselia, Puliciphora and Spiniphora). This study focused on the taxonomy of the largest genus Megaselia, and seven species (M. aemula, M. curtineura, M. formosana, M. ochracea, M. reversa, M. scalaris and M. spiracularis), including two newly recorded and widely distributed species in Taiwan. Here also give the key for identification and distribution information; hopefully this study could provide more information for species identification in forensic entomological cases and other applications.
Subjects
Saprophagy
Taiwan
Phoridae
Megaselia
taxonomy
distribution
Type
thesis
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