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Family PYRGOTIDAE Loew, 1868

Light Flies, Pyrgotid Flies


Compiler and date details

February 2012 - Scott Ginn, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

Introduction

Family Pyrgotidae is a medium-sized family of flies known from some 330 species in 50 genera worldwide. The Australian fauna currently consists of 67 species from 14 genera. Th adults are generally medium- to large-sized flies, and are nocturnal, being attracted to lights. Their common name — light flies — reflects this behaviour.

Little is known of the biology of pyrgotids, except that some evidence suggests that they are internal parasitoids of adult scarabaeid beetles. They are known to land on flying beetles, and while in flight, to use their conical oviscapt to pierce the soft terga under their host’s elytra and deposit an egg.

The most significant works on the Pyrgotidae have been reviews of the Australian fauna by Bezzi (1929) and Paramonov (1958), and nomenclatural changes by McAlpine (1978).

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
29-Feb-2012 29-Feb-2012 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)