Family PYRGOTIDAE
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).
General References
Bezzi, M. 1929. Australian Pyrgotidae (Diptera). With an appendix by J.R. Malloch. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 54: 1-31 [Date published 15 May]
Evenhuis, N. (Originally by B.R. Pitkin) 1996. Family Pyrgotidae. In Evenhuis, N.L.(ed.) Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. last updated 5 October 1996. http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/aocat/pyrgotidae.html
McAlpine, D.K. 1978. Notes on nomenclature and type-specimens of Australian Pyrgotidae (Diptera, Scizophora). Australian Entomological Magazine 5: 27-33 [Date published July]
Paramonov, S.J. 1958. A review of Australian Pyrgotidae (Diptera). Australian Journal of Zoology 6: 89-137 [Date published May]