Cyrtona

Pollock, J. N., 2002, Observations on the biology and anatomy of Curtonotidae (Diptera: Schizophora), Journal of Natural History 36 (14), pp. 1725-1745 : 1727

Cyrtona biology

Field sampling in Zimbabwe has shown that at the height of the dry season (September, October), specimens of Cyrtona are to be found in riverine habitats. Typical daytime resting sites are dark humid recesses in river banks overhung with tree roots, and sheltered by shrubs and taller trees producing dense shade. Such recesses are often above rocky pools of water. Shelters of this kind are the refuge for Cyrtona and many other acalyptrate ies, being one of the most humid terrestrial habitats available for ies in the area, in an otherwise semi-arid environment that is subject to erce grass res in the hot dry season.

On overcast showery days in the early rainy season (November) in Zimbabwe, the riverine resting sites are abandoned, and ies may be found in the middle of the day on low herbage at the margin of tree clumps growing immediately around the pools. Later still (e.g. in January), adult ies become scarce and have not yet been collected at the height of the rainy season. In May, ies may be swept from exposed streamside herbage, but as the dry season progresses adult ies are increasingly con ned to the river bank recesses. In Zambia, ies were captured by sweep netting in areas of long grass within a plant nursery, and in patches of swamp forest within 20 km of Lusaka.

Mating in these ies has not been observed, and the larval substrate is unknown.