Amiota, LOEW

Jones, Lance E. & Grimaldi, David A., 2022, Revision Of The Nearctic Species Of The Genus Amiota Loew (Diptera: Drosophilidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (458), pp. 1-181 : 20

GENUS AMIOTA LOEW

Amiota Loew, 1862a: 229 (original description); Duda, 1934 (revision of European species);

Wheeler, 1952 (key to Nearctic species); Wheeler, 1965 ( Drosophilidae catalog, north of Mexico); Máca, 1980 (revision of European species); Chen and Toda, 2001 (revision of European and East Asian species); Bächli et al., 2004 (key to west Palaearctic species); Brake and Bächli, 2008 (worldwide catalog of Drosophilidae ).

DIAGNOSIS: Small to large drosophilids (ThL 0.90–2.09 mm), most black or dark brown, to light honey-golden color; oral margin, postpronotal lobe, and area immediately ventral to wing base with characteristic milky-white patches (except in A. minor ); arista short to long, plumose, some species with branches pointing mediad; postocellar setae very small; anterior reclinate orbital seta well developed, usually half or more the length of proclinate; face flat or with upper portion slightly carinate; pair of prescutellar setae present; hind femur and/or tibia sometimes with comb of long, fine bristles; aedeagal apodeme broad, dorsoventrally flattened; paraphyses modified in most species to large, heavily sclerotized, swordlike or broad structures with apical hooks and commonly with asymmetrical spines.

TYPE SPECIES: Amiota leucostoma Loew , established by Coquillett (1910).

COMMENTS: This genus consists of about 154 species found worldwide, but with most diversity centered in the north temperate forests of the world. Larvae are saproxylic, developing under bark and/or in decaying wood. Most species are known to be lachryphagous and attracted to the eyes and face of humans and other mammals.