Семейство журчалок: Биология и систематика

Family of flies

The Phoridae are a family of small, hump backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their escape habit of running rapidly across a surface rather than taking to the wing. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names, scuttle fly. Another vernacular name, coffin fly, refers to Conicera tibialis. About 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well known species is cosmopolitan Megaselia scalaris. At 0.4 mm in length, the world's smallest fly is the phorid Euryplatea nanaknihali.

Traditionally, phorids were classified into six subfamilies: Phorinae, Aenigmatiinae, Metopininae (including tribes Beckerinini and Metopinini), Alamirinae, Termitoxeniinae, and Thaumatoxeninae. Disney & Cumming (1992) abolished the Alamirinae when they showed they were the 'missing' males of Termitoxeniinae, which were known only from females. Also in 1992, Brown presented a revised, cladistic classification based on many new character states. This classification included subfamilies Hypocerinae, Phorinae, Aenigmatiinae, Conicerinae, and Metopininae (Termitoxeniinae and Thaumatoxeninae were not included in his study). Disney rejected the entirety of Brown's work, deeming it premature, and a lively debate ensued. Further resolution of this controversy awaits new data. The oldest fossils of the family are known from Cretaceous aged amber, with the oldest known being from Early Cretaceous (Albian) French and Spanish amber.

Phorid flies are found worldwide, though the greatest variety of species is to be found in the tropics. The Phoridae show the greatest diversity of all the dipterous families. Larvae are found in the nests of social insects and in some aquatic habitats, in organic detritus such as dung, carrion, insect frass, and dead snails. Some are synanthropic. Some species feed on bracket and other fungi and mycelium or on living plants (sometimes as leaf miners). Some are predators or parasites of earthworms, snails, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, and insect eggs, larvae, and pupae. The adults feed on nectar, honeydew, and the juices exuding from fresh carrion and dung. Some adults feed on the body fluids of living beetle larvae and pupae, others prey on small insects. Several species have the common name coffin fly, because they breed in human corpses with such tenacity, they can even continue living within buried coffins. For this reason, they are important in forensic entomology. Most commonly, they feed on decaying organic matter. Because they frequent unsanitary places, including drain pipes, they may transport various disease causing organisms to food material. The adults are conspicuous on account of their fast and abrupt running. In some species, the males fly in swarms. Megaselia halterata, the mushroom phorid, is a pest of mushroom cultures. Although it does not cause direct damage, it is an efficient vector of dry mould (Lecanicillium fungicola).

Phorid flies develop from eggs into larval, and pupal stages before emerging as adults. The female lays from one to 100 tiny eggs at a time in or on the larval food. She can lay up to 750 eggs in her lifetime. The time it takes from egg to adult varies on the species, but the average is about 25 days. The larvae emerge in 24 hours and feed for a period between 8 and 16 days, before crawling to a drier spot to pupate. The phorid fly's egg to adult life cycle can be as short as 14 days, but may take up to 37 days. Many species of phorid flies are specialist parasitoids of ants, but several species in the tropics are parasitoids of stingless bees. These affected bees are often host to more than one fly larva, and some individuals have been found to contain 12 phorid larvae. Other species, especially those of the giant genus Megaselia, develop in various fungi during their larval stage and may be pests of cultivated mushrooms.

Phorid flies also represent a new and hopeful means by which to control fire ant populations in the southern United States, where some species of fire ants were accidentally introduced in the 1930s. The genus Pseudacteon, or ant decapitating flies, of which 110 species have been documented, is a parasitoid of ants. Pseudacteon species reproduce by laying eggs in the thorax of the ant. The first instar larvae migrate to the head, where they feed on the ant's hemolymph, muscle and nerve tissue. Eventually, the larvae completely devour the ant's brain, causing it to wander aimlessly for about two weeks. After about two to four

Beyer, E.; Delage, A. Bearbeitet von: Schmitz, H. Phoridae 672 Seiten, 437 Abbildungen, 15 Tafeln, 26x19cm (in Erwin Lindner: Die Fliegen der Paläarktischen Region, Band IV / 7 Teil 1)1981
Borgmeier, T. 1963. Revision of the North American phorid flies. Part I. The Phorinae, Aenigmatiinae, and Metopininae, except Megaselia (Diptera: Phoridae). Stud. Entomol. 6:1–256. Keys subfamilies, genera and species. Peterson B. V. (1987). Phoridae. In: Manual of Nearctic Diptera. Vol. 2. Canada Department of Agriculture Research Branch, Monograph no. 27, p. 689–712. The full text (53 MB) pdf
K. G. V. Smith, 1989 An introduction to the immature stages of British Flies. Diptera Larvae, with notes on eggs, puparia and pupae. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects Vol 10 Part 14. pdf download manual (two parts Main text and figures index)

A few cases of phorid flies opportunistically causing human myiasis have been reported.