Sepsidae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sepsidae

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Suborder:	Brachycera
Subsection:	Acalyptratae
Superfamily:	Sciomyzoidea
Family:	Sepsidae

Genera

according to ITIS:
Orygma
Saltella
Decachaetophora
Enicita
Enicomira
Meroplius
Nemopoda
Sepsidimorpha
Sepsis (genus)
Themira

Sepsidae are a family of flies, commonly called the black scavenger flies or ensign flies. There are approximately 250 species worldwide. They are usually found around dung or decaying plant and animal material.They resemble ants having a "waist" and glossy black body [1]. Many Sepsidae have a curious wing-waving habit made more apparent by dark patches at the wing end.

Sepsis fulgens

Many species have a very wide distribution reflecting the coprophagous habit of most Sepsidae. Some species have been spread over large territories in association with livestock. Adult flies are found mostly on animal and human excrement (less often on other rotting organic matter) where eggs are laid and larvae develop, and on nearby vegetation, carrion, fermenting tree sap, and shrubs and herbs.

Many Sepsidae apparently play an important biological role as decomposers of animal excrement. Some species may have a limited hygienic importance because of their association with human feces. Others are useful tools in forensic entomology.

1 Identification
2 World Catalogue
3 Species lists
4 External links

[edit] Identification

Duda, O. 1926 Monographie der Sepsiden (Dipt.). Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 39 (1925): 1-153 and 40 (1926) : 1-110.

This work is partly out of date but still the only review of world genera.

Willi Hennig, 1949: 39a. Sepsidae. In Erwin Lindner : Die Fliegen der Palaearktischen Region, Bd. V: 1-91, Textfig. 1-81a-d, Taf. I-X, Stuttgart.The only comprehensive work on Palaearctic genera and species.
Adrian C. Pont and Rudolf Meier The Sepsidae (Diptera) of Europe. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica Volume 37.

198 pages. ISBN 90-04-12477-2

A.L. Ozerov Sepsid Flies (Diptera, Sepsidae) of Russia's Fauna. Studies on the fauna; Archives of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University: Zool. Mus. Moscow. Univ. Publ.Language: Russian, title, contents and a summary in English. 184 pages.

A very well illustrated guide to all 57 species from 11 genera of Sepsidae flies occurring in Russia, with keys to adults and pre-imaginal stages, and accounts concerning anatomy, phylogeny and distribution.