Subfamily Dasypogoninae - Spine-legged Robber Flies
Family Asilidae
This page contains pictures and information about Spine-legged Robber Flies in Subfamily Dasypogoninae
that we found
in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Robber flies in this subfamily have the wing vein R2+3 open, ending on the wing margin. Their antenna terminal is sometimes thickened. The fore tibia with an apical spur; one of the spines at the apex of the ventral side of the fore tibia is enlarged.
- The Dasypogoninae subfamily used to be a larger group. Those robber fly species were recognised within this group by the large spine on the front tibiae. This has been used as a diagnostic character for Dasypogoninae. Based on the phylogenetic hypothesis derived by Dikow (2009) this spine has been independently derived at least once in the Australian Brachyrhopalinae. They are transferred to the newly erected Brachyrhopalinae.
- Robber Flies in Subfamily Dasypogoninae can be recognized by the following characteristics;
- - antenna terminal is sometimes thickened,
- - with apical spur on fore tibiae,
- Spider-wasp-mimicking Robber Fly
- ? Apothechyla sp., body length 20mm
- This Robber fly has a black body, very long legs and golden wings. Its colour pattern mimics the Spider Wasp. It was resting on a large tree trunk in Karawatha Forest during early summer. When we came close, it opened it wings, bend its abdomen , making the stinging action and show its yellow bands on its abdomen, tried very hard to convince us that it was a real Spider wasp.
Tribe Dasypogonini
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 758.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p362.
- 3. Family ASILIDAE Robber Flies - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
- 4. Australian Asilidae - Dr. Robert Lavigne, Honorary Research Associate, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA.
- 5. A phylogenetic hypothesis for Asilidae based on a total evidence analysis of morphological and DNA sequence data (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera: Asilidae) - Dikow, T. 2009, Organisms, Diversity & Evolution 9: 165–188.
- 6. Phylogeny of Asilidae inferred from morphological characters of imagines (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera: Asiloidea) - Dikow, T. 2009, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 319: 1-175 [Date published 17 March 2009]
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[ Up ] [ Biology ] [ Laphriinae ] [ Ommatiinae ] [ Asilinae ] [ Bathypogoninae ] [ Phellinae ] [ Dasypogoninae ] [ Leptogasterinae ] [ Brachyrhopalinae ] [ Unidentified Robber Fly ] - 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 758.
