Colobaea distincta (Meigen), 1830

Bratt, Albertus D., Knutson, Lloyd V., Murphy, William L. & Daniels, Anthony A., 2020, Biology, immature stages, and systematics of snail-killing flies of the genus Colobaea (Diptera: Sciomyzidae), with overviews of aspects of the tribe Sciomyzini, Zootaxa 4840 (1), pp. 1-64 : 25

Colobaea distincta (Meigen), 1830

Map 7

Colobaea distincta is a rather common species that may be identified by the entirely black anepisternum and anepimeron, arista shorter than face, basal flagellomere only twice as long as its width at base, two apical segments of the foretarsus white, all wing veins yellow and infumated, and middle of face tomentose. The adult male was figured beautifully by Hendel (1901).

Colobaea distincta ranges from northwestern Ireland (County Mayo) and the UK (Porthcawl, Wales and Devonshire, England) across central Europe to St. Petersburg, Russia (at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland) in the north and to Bulgaria (Bagau) and southern Russia (Sarepta, near Volgograd) in the south.

The habitat distribution of C. distincta is quite broad. Verbeke (1948) cited it as being found in “bois” (= forest) at Melle and Schelderode, Belgium. P. Skidmore (in litt. to LVK) collected the species in a marsh by the River Avon in southern England. Stora (1956) collected adult flies on the seashore at Lillsanviken, in Faboda, Finland. Stackelberg (1958) recorded it from marshy margins of lakes near Leningrad, Russia.

Colobaea distincta seems to have a relatively long flight period, having been collected between 5 May and 12 September in southern England and on similar dates on the European continent.

Rozkošný (1967) obtained 1♀ on 16 April from a puparium in a shell of Anisus spirorbis (L.) collected 3 April 1965 at Vranovice, Czech Republic. Beuk (1993) reared 3♂ collected 24 April 1986 from “flood debris” (including snail shells) from backwaters of the Rhine River on 14 April.

Figures

MAP 7. Geographic range of Colobaea distincta (Meigen).