Megaselia gregaria (Wood, 1910)

DISNEY, R. H. L., 2003, Tasmanian Phoridae (Diptera) and some additional Australasian species, Journal of Natural History 37 (5), pp. 505-639 : 552-555

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930110096564

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5272502

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B287A2-4264-FFAE-FDC7-FB1FFB95FE28

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Megaselia gregaria (Wood, 1910)
status

 

Megaselia gregaria (Wood, 1910) View in CoL

(figures 21, 22)

Phora gregaria Wood, 1910: 152 View in CoL .

This species is widely distributed in Europe (Disney, 1991). The recognition of the male was clarified in the key to British species (Disney, 1989). The wings of the Tasmanian specimens are a little darker than those of European specimens. On the face of it this appears to be a European species, presumably introduced by man into Tasmania. However, apart from the very distinctive hypopygium of M. sullivani View in CoL (see below) the latter species is almost indistinguishable from M. gregaria View in CoL , even with regard to unusual details such as the scale-like spinules on the labella (figure 22). If this close phenetic resemblance is due to phylogenetic affinity, and if M. sullivani View in CoL proves to be a Tasmanian endemic, then this would suggest that M. gregaria View in CoL may have been introduced to Europe from Tasmania rather than the reverse.

Material

Twenty-three males and 18 females, Tasmania, Hobart, Battery Point , De Witt Street , garden, 23–31 December 1991, 1–11 January 1992 ( R. H. L. Disney —25-4, 6, 7, 34, 38, 39); 1 male, 2 females, Fern Tree, near Hobart, Grays Road, at window of builder’s shed, 18 September 1998 ( RHLD —25-23, 28) .

Natural history

A gravid female had 26 nearly mature eggs. About half the females examined, but none of the males, had the abdomen infested with nematodes.

R

Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Chile

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Phoridae

Genus

Megaselia

Loc

Megaselia gregaria (Wood, 1910)

DISNEY, R. H. L. 2003
2003
Loc

M. sullivani

DISNEY 2003
2003
Loc

M. sullivani

DISNEY 2003
2003
Loc

Phora gregaria

Wood 1910: 152
1910
Loc

M. gregaria

Wood 1910
1910
Loc

M. gregaria

Wood 1910
1910
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