Семейство Пиофилиды: сырные мухи и особенности их поведения.

Family of flies

The Piophilidae are a family of "true flies", in the order Diptera. The so called cheese flies are the best known members, but most species of the Piophilidae are scavengers in animal products, carrion, and fungi. They may accordingly be important in forensic entomology and medical entomology. For a fly maggot, the larvae of many species have an unusually well developed ability to leap when alarmed or when abandoning their larval food to pupate; they accordingly may be known as cheese skippers or other kinds of skippers according to their food source.

The most notorious member of the family is the cheese fly, Piophila casei; it is cosmopolitan, and a typical member of the family. It is a small species, about long. The fly's larvae infest cured meats, smoked or salted fish, cheeses, and carrion. The mature larva is about long and is sometimes called the cheese skipper because of its leaping ability when disturbed, this tiny maggot can hop some 15 cm (6 in) into the air. Adults are also known as bacon flies and their larvae as bacon skippers, ham skippers, cheese maggots, cheese hoppers, etc. In the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, the larvae are intentionally introduced into pecorino cheese to produce the characteristic casu marzu ("rotten cheese" in Sardinian). The adult cheese fly's body is black, blue black, or bronze, with some yellow on the head, antennae, and legs. The wings are faintly iridescent and lie flat upon the fly's abdomen when at rest. At long, the fly is one third to one half as long as the common housefly.

Like the larvae of various fly families, including the family Tephritidae, the larvae of typical piophilids are notorious for jumping or "skipping", especially in their final instar. The larvae accomplish their jumps by bending over, grabbing onto the rears of their own bodies with their mouth hooks, and tensing their muscles in a manner that increases the pressure on their own blood and internal organs. When they release their grip, the internal pressure straightens out the tubular body, propelling the forequarters upwards, the rest of the body following. breeds on discarded antlers of moose and other deer. On discarded antlers, the males form complex, highly structured aggregations in which a great deal of territorial competition occurs. In prime areas of the antler, near oviposition sites (cracks in the antler surface), males spend much of their time battling rival males. Males spend their entire lives competing on the same antler (only leaving to spend the night in nearby vegetation), making it possible to mark flies individually and obtain longitudinal field data on these tiny insects. This unique ecology made it possible to document senescence in wild insects for the first time. The waltzing fly, Prochyliza xanthostoma, occurs in North America. It is one of the carrion feeding piophilids and is remarkable for its sexual dimorphism and its patterns of behavioural adaptation and associated morphological adaptations. In particular, the antennae, forelegs, and heads of the males are adapted in unusual ways to their behaviour in combat and courtship. A male courts a female by dancing side to side, forequarters held high, displaying his elongated antennae and vibrating his elongated forelegs.

If swallowed (whether accidentally or otherwise), the larvae sometimes survive in the intestines and pass through the digestive system alive. Such behaviour is known as enteric or intestinal myiasis. In the gut, the larvae may cause serious lesions by attempting to bore through the intestinal walls. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, pain in the abdomen, and bloody diarrhea. Both living and dead larvae may pass in the stool. Some species also have been known to cause naso oral and urogenital myiasis. However, P. casei is not the only piophilid species to attack human corpses, so caution is appropriate in identification of the species found and in interpretation of their significance.

Piophilidae are small flies, often dark in color and shiny. The wings are usually clear and unmarked, with the exception of the genera Mycetaulus, Neottiophilum, Pseudoseps, and Thyreophora, which have brown wing markings. Like all tephritoid flies, female piophilids have an extensible ovipositor. The family differs from the similar looking family Sepsidae in several characters, particularly in having the costa broken at the end of the subcosta, the setulose mesonotum and the absence of a hair or fine bristle arising on the posterior edge of the posterior spiracle of the thorax.

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