Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
species have piercing mouthparts and feed on
the blood of mammals. Larvae of many spe-
cies are carnivorous (in their second to fourth
instars) and some are then useful predators of
crop pests.
EXAMPLES:
Haematobosca stimulans
(cattle
biting fly),
Haematobia irritans
(horn fly),
Hydrotaea irritans
(sheep head fly),
Stomoxys
calcitrans
(stable fly);
Muscina stabulans
(false
stable fly), the larvae of which are predators
of, for example, larvae of
Ceutorhynchus
pallidactylus
(cabbage stem weevil).
Series SCHIZOPHORA -
PUPIPARA
Highly modified and specialized parasites of
birds and mammals. Females characteristically
give birth singly to virtually fully developed lar-
vae; the latter then almost immediately pupate.
Fig.
113
Larva of an anthomyiid fly - family
Anthomyiidae. (a) anterior spiracle; (b) posterior
spiracle; (c) cephalopharyngeal skeleton: (d) tuber-
cles on the anal segment.
30. Family HIPPOBOSCIDAE
Dorsoventrally flattened insects, modified as
external parasites of warm-blooded vertebrates;
antennae 1-segmented; legs short and stout; tar-
sal claws strong and often dentate; wings present,
vestigial or absent.
EXAMPLES:
Hippobosca equina
(forest fly),
Melophagus ovinus
(sheep ked).
29. Family MUSCIDAE
Small to relatively large flies, mostly resembling
house flies; similar to members of the family
Calliphoridae but without hypopleural bristles;
squamae large and covering the halteres. Some
ORDER LEPIDOPTERA (BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS)
Minute to large insects with two pairs of mem-
branous wings; cross-veins few in number;
body, wings and appendages usually covered with
flat scales; mouthparts suctorial, with man-
dibles vestigial or absent, and often forming a
long, coiled proboscis. Metamorphosis complete.
Eggs extremely variable in form and colour; and
often sculptured with longitudinal ridges and
adorned with a raised, reticulated pattern. Larvae
eruciform, most often with three pairs of thoracic
legs and five pairs of abdominal prolegs, the latter
usually armed with crochets - prolegs usually
present on abdominal segments 3-6 and 10
(Fig.
114)
(cf. larvae of sawflies: Hymenoptera, sub-
order Symphyta); the prolegs on the anal segment
are sometimes called anal claspers (descriptions
of the arrangement of crochets on the prolegs of
lepidopterous larvae usually do not apply to the
anal claspers); head usually strongly chitinized,
with several ocelli and with a pair of silk glands
(modified salivary glands); body often with setae
or longer hairs arising from distinctive plates,
pinacula or verrucae, and sometimes marked with
more or less complete longitudinal stripes or lines
(see Fig 114); larvae typically phytophagous,
often leaf-mining, rarely carnivorous.
