Botanophila Lioy, 1864

Xue, Wan-Qi & Song, Wen-Hui, 2007, A review of the genus Botanophila Lioy (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) from China, with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 1633, pp. 1-38 : 2-4

Botanophila Lioy, 1864

Botanophila Lioy, 1864: 990 . Type species: Anthomyia varicolor Meigen, 1826 , by monotypy.

Collinomyia Ringdahl, 1929: 269. Type species: Aricia gemmata Zetterstedt, 1860 , by monotypy.

Pegohylemyia Schnabl, 1911: 98 . Type species: Musca cinerea Fallén, 1824 (= Egeria silvatica Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 ), by monotypy. Synonymized by Michelsen (1983).

Euryparia Ringdahl, 1929: 269 . Type species: Anthomyia varicolor Meigen, 1826 ), by monotypy. Preoccupied by Becker, 1911 ( Chloropidae ).

Monochrotogaster Ringdahl, 1932: 19 . Type species: Monochrotogaster unicolor Ringdahl, 1932 , by monotypy.

Pseudomyopina Ringdahl, 1933: 31 . Type species: Aricia moriens Zetterstedt, 1845 , by monotypy.

Diagnosis. Botanophila resembles Delia in general habitus. But Botanophila aedeagus with distal section largely membranous, without sclerotized acrophallus. Pregonite relatively low and small (not prominent), covered with setae of varied sizes and fused anteriorly with central plate of hypandrium. In Delia , the aedeagus is strongly sclerotized and the pregonite is well developed and bigger than the postgonite.

Biology. Larvae are mainly phytophagous. The larvae of B. dissecta (Meigen) , B. humeralis (Hennig) , B. latifrons (Zetterstedt) , B. lobata (Collin) , and B. phrenione (Séguy) live on Epichloe fungus on species of Graminaceae. The larvae of B. fugax (Meigen) and B. humeralis feed on monocotyledons. Larvae of some other species feed on dicotyledons. The larvae of B. gnava (Meigen) and B. sonchi (Hardy) live on flower heads of Sonchus spp. The larvae of B. jacobaee (Hardy) and B. seneciella (Meade) live on flower heads of Senecio (and have been used in Australia for the biological control of introduced weeds) ( Hennig 1970). The larvae of B. spinosa (Rondani) and B. turcica (Hennig) from southern France feed on Carthamus and Onopordum acanthium Linnaeus , respectively ( Vitou et al. 2001).

Flower visitations of adults are just as little known. Adults of B. latifrons can be found on Anthriscus silvester (Linnaeus) in Finland; B. maculipes (Zetterstedt) can be found on Solidago virgaurea (Linnaeus) in Småland, Sweden; B. sonchi has been reared from Sonchus oleraceus L. in Europe; B. profuga (Stein) can be collected on the flowers of Archanlica and Geranium in Iceland; and B. sanctimarci (Czerny) often can be seen around the flowers of Allium ursinum (Linnaeus) in Austria ( Hennig 1970). As some of these thistle hosts are significant weeds outside their native range (particularly in Australia), these anthomyiid flies have potential as biological control agents.

The natural predators and parasitoids of Botanophila are mainly Braconidae , Ichneumonidae , Diapriidae , Pteromalidae , Vespidae , and Staphylinidae ( Fan 1988a) .

Distribution. Cosmopolitan.