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Muscoidea Genera
Muscoidea is a superfamily of flies in the subsection Calyptratae. Muscoidea, with approximately 7000 described species, is nearly 5% of the known species level diversity of the Diptera, the true flies. Most muscoid flies are saprophagous, coprophagous or necrophagous as larvae, but some species are parasitic, predatory, or phytophagous. In September 2008, a study was done on the superfamily using both nucleic and mitochondrial DNA and the conclusion suggested that Muscoidea may actually be paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co .... References Diptera superfamilies {{Muscoidea-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthomyia Pluvialis
''Anthomyia'' is a genus of flies in the family Anthomyiidae. They look rather like small houseflies, but commonly have conspicuous black-and-white patterning. This appears to be a mild form of aposematic Aposematism is the Advertising in biology, advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predation, predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the pr ... coloration, though they do not appear to be distasteful unless they have eaten something offensive to the predator and have loaded their guts with it. Species References Anthomyiidae Articles containing video clips Schizophora genera Taxa named by Johann Wilhelm Meigen {{Muscoidea-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthomyiidae
The Anthomyiidae are a large and diverse family (biology), family of Muscoidea fly, flies. Most look rather like small houseflies. Most species are drab grey to black. Many ''Pegomya'' are yellow, and some members of the genus, genera ''Anthomyia'' and ''Eutrichota'' are patterned in black-and-white or black-and-silvery-grey. Most are difficult to identify, apart from a few groups such as the Kelp fly, kelp flies that are conspicuous on beaches. The name Anthomyiidae was derived from Greek ''anthos'' (flower) plus ''myia'' (a fly). Some species are commonly called "root-maggots", as the larvae are found in the stems and roots of various plants. As larvae, some also feed on decaying plant material. The well-known grey "seaweed flies" or "kelp flies" (''Fucellia'') are examples. Others are scavengers in such places as birds' nests; yet other species are leaf miners; the family also includes inquilines, commensals, and parasite, parasitic larvae. Some species in the family ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanniidae
The Fanniidae are a small (285 species in five genera) group of true flies largely confined to the Holarctic and temperate Neotropical realms; there are 11 Afrotropical species, 29 Oriental, and 14 Australasian. Adults are medium-sized to small and usually have mainly dark body and leg colours. Males congregate in characteristic dancing swarms beneath trees; females are more retiring in habit. Larvae are characterised by their flattened bodies with striking lateral protuberances, and live as scavengers in various kinds of decaying organic matter. The lesser housefly '' Fannia canicularis'' is a worldwide synanthropic species. Fanniidae are indicators useful in forensic entomology. Identifying characteristics The Fanniidae were once a subfamily of Muscidae from which they may be distinguished by: *A (strictly) dorsal bristle is on the hind tibia below the middle and in addition to the dorsal preapical. *The axillary vein is strongly curved towards the wingtip, so if extended, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muscidae
Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea. Muscidae, some of which are commonly known as house flies or stable flies due to their synanthropy, are worldwide in distribution and contain almost 4,000 described species in over 100 genera. Most species are not synanthropic. Adults can be predatory, hematophagous, saprophagous, or feed on a number of types of plant and animal exudates. They can be attracted to various substances including sugar, sweat, tearand blood. Larvae occur in various habitats including decaying vegetation, dry and wet soil, nests of insects and birds, fresh water, and carrion. The Housefly, housefly, ''Musca domestica'', is the best known and most important species. Some, from the genera '' Hydrotaea'' and '' Muscina'', are involved in forensic case studies. Identifying characteristics The antennae are three-segmented and aristate; vein Rs is two-branched, a frontal suture is present, and the calypters are well developed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scathophagidae
The Scathophagidae are a small family (biology), family of Muscoidea which are often known as dung flies, although this misnomer, name is not appropriate except for a few species of the genus ''Scathophaga'' which do indeed pass their larval stages in animal dung. The name probably derives from the yellow dung fly (''Scathophaga stercoraria''), which is one of the most abundant and ubiquitous flies in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Description The Scathophagidae are medium-sized or quite small flies with a body length of 3.0 to 12.0 mm. The body is slender, especially in males, usually with an elongated, cylindrical abdomen. Many scathophagids appear more robust, however, due to a dense pubescence. Body colour ranges from yellow to black; some species are glossy, but never with a metallic gloss. Some species are bicolored. The eyes are wide-set on the frons in males and females. The bristles on the head, thorax, and legs are well developed. The occiput usually has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superfamily (zoology)
In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of organisms (a ''taxon'') in a hierarchy that reflects evolutionary relationships. Thus, the most inclusive clades (such as Eukarya and Animalia) have the highest ranks, whereas the least inclusive ones (such as ''Homo sapiens'' or '' Bufo bufo'') have the lowest ranks. Ranks can be either relative and be denoted by an indented taxonomy in which the level of indentation reflects the rank, or absolute, in which various terms, such as species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain designate rank. This page emphasizes absolute ranks and the rank-based codes (the Zoological Code, the Botanical Code, the Code for Cultivated Plants, the Prokaryotic Code, and thCode for Viruses require them. However, absolute ranks are not r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calyptratae
Calyptratae is a subsection of Schizophora in the insect order Diptera, commonly referred to as the calyptrate muscoids (or simply calyptrates). It consists of those flies which possess a calypter that covers the halteres, among which are some of the most familiar of all flies, such as the house fly. About 18,000 described species are in this group, or about 12% of all the flies yet described. Subsection *Superfamily Muscoidea *: Anthomyiidae - cabbage flies *: Fanniidae *: Muscidae - house flies *: Scathophagidae - dung flies *Superfamily Oestroidea *: Calliphoridae *: Mystacinobiidae *:Oestridae *: Rhinophoridae *: Sarcophagidae *: Tachinidae *: Ulurumyiidae *Superfamily Hippoboscoidea *: Glossinidae *: Hippoboscidae *:Nycteribiidae *: Streblidae The Mormotomyiidae belong to the Ephydroidea and not to Hippoboscoidea as previously construed. The Streblidae are probably not monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saprophagy
Saprophages are organisms that obtain nutrients by consuming decomposing dead plant or animal biomass. They are distinguished from detritivores in that saprophages are sessile consumers while detritivores are mobile. Typical saprophagic animals include sedentary polychaetes such as amphitrites (''Amphitritinae'', worms of the family Terebellidae) and other terebellids. The eating of wood, whether live or dead, is known as xylophagy. The activity of animals feeding only on dead wood is called sapro-xylophagy and those animals, sapro-xylophagous. Ecology In food webs, saprophages generally play the roles of decomposers. There are two main branches of saprophages, broken down by nutrient source. There are necrophages which consume dead animal biomass, and thanatophages which consume dead plant biomass. See also *Detritivore *Decomposer *Saprotrophic nutrition Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion inv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coprophagia
Coprophagia ( ) or coprophagy ( ) is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek "feces" and "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of other individuals (allocoprophagy), or one's own (autocoprophagy). Feces may be already deposited or taken directly from the anus. Some animal species eat feces as a normal behavior, whereas other species may eat feces under certain conditions. Coprophagia by plants Some carnivorous plants, such as pitcher plants of the genus '' Nepenthes'', obtain nutrition from the feces of commensal animals. Notable examples include '' Nepenthes jamban'', whose specific name is the Indonesian word for toilet. Manure is organic matter, mostly animal feces, that is used as organic fertilizer for plants in agriculture. Coprophagia by nonhuman animals By invertebrates Coprophagous insects consume and redigest the feces of large animals. These fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scavenger
Scavengers are animals that consume Corpse decomposition, dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding behavior. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animal and plant material. Decomposer, ''Decomposers'' and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Scavengers aid in overcoming fluctuations of food resources in the environment. The process and rate of scavenging is affected by both Biotic component, biotic and Abiotic component, abiotic factors, such as carcass size, habitat, temperature, and seasons. Etymology Scavenger is an alteration of ''scavager,'' from Middle English ''skawager'' meaning "customs collector", from ''skawage'' meaning "customs", from Old North French ''escauwage'' meaning "inspection", from ''schauwer'' meaning "to inspect", of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat non-vascular autotrophs such as mosses, algae and lichens, but do not include those feeding on decomposed plant matters (i.e. detritivores) or macrofungi (i.e. fungivores). As a result of their plant-based diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouth structures ( jaws or mouthparts) well adapted to mechanically break down plant materials, and their digestive systems have special enzymes (e.g. amylase and cellulase) to digest polysaccharides. Grazing herbivores such as horses and cattles have wide flat- crowned teeth that are better adapted for grinding grass, tree bark and other tougher lignin-containing materials, and many of them evolved rumination or cecotropic behaviors to better extract nutrients from plants. A larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic grouping (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term received currency during the debates of the 1960s and 1970s accompanying the rise of cladistics, having been coined by zoologist Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles), which is paraphyletic with respect to birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
