Ulidia Meigen, 1826

Chen, Xiao-Lin & Kameneva, Elena P., 2009, A review of Ulidia Meigen (Diptera: Ulidiidae) from China, Zootaxa 2175, pp. 42-50 : 43

Ulidia Meigen, 1826

Type species: Ulidia erythrophthalma Meigen, 1826 , by subsequent designation of Hennig 1940: 13.

Diagnosis. Shining black flies with hyaline wings, often with partly red head and dark subapical spot on the wing. Frons usually dimpled, shining or subshining, sometimes with white microtrichose areas on orbits. First flagellomere short and round. Antennal grooves deep, oval, well-separated by wide facial carina. Wing hyaline or often with several black or grayish areas, never forming distinct patterns. Posteroapical lobe of cell bcu long, vein A1+Cu2 moderately long, rarely short. Thorax without microtrichose areas (except in U. splendida Zaitzev ), shining or shagreened, sometimes almost matt. Abdomen shining, very rarely matt or with white microtrichose areas. Male genitalia: phallus long, coiled and partially flattened tube divided into two halves; pair of sclerotized taeniae ending approximately at its mid-length; another pair of taeniae beginning at phallus middle almost reaching phallus apex; phallus apical half bearing long membranous caecum-like appendix. Distiphallus apex bowed and bearing numerous sclerotized cuticular spurs, hooks or lobes surrounding gonopore and forming “glans” similar to that found in the Tephritidae . Surstylus hook-like, sometimes with expressed postero-dorsal lobe. Cerci clearly bilobed. Female terminalia: aculeus moderately long and wide, with oval or rounded cercal unit; three spherical spermathecae with smooth or micropapillose surface.

All known species occur in the Palearctic Region, commonly occurring in dry meadows, wood-and-steppe and steppe grasslands or semi-deserts in late spring or early summer. Only one species, Ulidia fulvifrons Bigot, 1857 , is found in the New World.