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Polleniidae - US/Canada (in development)

Authors: Even Dankowicz

Last updated: 2019

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Help identify observations on iNaturalist!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?taxon_id=932929&place_id=6712,1

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Polleniidae

- Melanodexia

- Pollenia

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Melanodexia

Western spp.; species ID uncertain

  • Dorsal and lateral thorax not covered with crinkly, golden hair
  • Abdomen variable
  • Scutellum not conspicuously widened (at least as in Pollenia rudis)
  • Presutural intra-alar bristle absent
  • Post-humeral bristles absent
  • Dorsal thorax convex near the center

© CBG Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, BoldSystems / CC BY-NC-SA

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Pollenia

  • Dorsal and lateral thorax covered with golden hairs (sometimes nearly absent)
  • abdomen with white pubescence checkerboarded over gray ground color

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6 species in North America, but require specimen-grade character analysis for separation—see key in Jewiss+Gaines 2012

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P. vagabunda can be visually separated, as it is the only species in which there is an apollinose medial stripe on the anterior scutum (also more or less lacks yellow hairs on thorax).

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Recently split into its own family:

Cerretti, Stireman, Badano, Gisondi, Rognes, lo Giudice, Pape, 2019. Reclustering the cluster flies (Diptera: Oestroidea, Polleniidae). Systematic Entomology 44, 957-972.

Pollenia pseudorudis, New Zealand, © Steve Kerr, iNaturalist / CC BY-NC

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Hawaiian Species

  • Pollenia rudis

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References

Sources for this entire project include:

  • BugGuide.net
  • iNaturalist.org
  • Steve Marshall - Flies: The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera
  • Diptera.org
  • Nearctic Manual of Diptera

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References

Other sources consulted for this specific document include:

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