Bibionidae Explained

Bibionidae (March flies) is a family of flies (Diptera) containing approximately 650–700 species worldwide. Adults are nectar feeders and emerge in numbers in spring. Because of the likelihood of adult flies being found in copula, they have earned colloquial names such as "love bugs" or "honeymoon flies".^[1]

Description

Bibionidae are medium-sized flies with a body length from 4.0 to 10.0 mm. The body is black, brown, or rusty, and thickset, with thick legs. The antennae are moniliform. The front tibiae bear large strong spurs or a circlet of spines. The tarsi are five-segmented and bear tarsal claws, pulvilli, and a well developed empodium. The wings have two basal cells (posterior basal wing cell and basal wing cell), but are without a discoidal wing cell. R4+5 is simple or branched; at most, only three branches of R developed. The leading edge wing veins are stronger than the weak veins of the trailing edge.

Biology

Bibionid larvae grow up in grassy areas and are herbivores and scavengers feeding on dead vegetation or living plant roots. Some species are found in compost.^[2] Larvae are sometimes found in pockets in which sometimes up to 200 specimens have been counted. Adults of most Plecia and some species of Bibio do not eat, but subsist solely on the food taken in during the larval stage and drop steadily when in flight until they are a few inches above the ground, hovering slowly. Adult-stage bibionids are quite short-lived, and some species of Plecia (lovebugs) spend much of their adult lives copulating. The male and female (lovebugs) attach themselves at the rear of the abdomen and remain that way at all times, even in flight. Adults swarm after synchronous emergence, sometimes in enormous numbers.^[3]

Fossil record

Bibionids have the most extensive fossil record of any dipteran family. Fossil bibionids are known questionably from the Jurassic, while some forms from the early part of the Upper Cretaceous look quite similar to modern species. Bibionid flies are very abundant among insect fossils from the Tertiary period, and many species have been described, although often based on highly fragmentary material. Most fossil species are easily identified with extant genera. In particular, the genera Plecia and Bibio are abundant among Tertiary fossils. Fossils from Europe include many specimens of the mainly tropical genus Plecia which is today entirely absent from Europe, demonstrating a warmer climate during the Tertiary.

Genera

• Bibio Geoffroy, 1762
• Bibiodes Coquillett, 1904^[4]
• Bibionellus Edwards, 1935^[5]
• Cascoplecia
• †Clothonopsis Hong & Wang, 1987^[6] (dubious taxon)
• Dilophus Meigen, 1803^[7]
• Enicoscolus Hardy, 1968^[8]
• †Fushunoplecia Hong, 2002^[9]
• †Lithosomyia Carpenter, 1986^[10]
• †Mesopleciella Rohdendorf, 1946^[11]
• Penthetria Meigen, 1803
• Plecia Wiedemann, 1828

Economic importance

For those species where the adults feed, they do so on the nectar of flowers of fruit trees and especially on flowers of umbelliferous plants, often swarming in mass flights in spring. Adults are important pollinators. Larvae play an important role in formation and accumulation of humus in soil. Some larvae are plant pests, especially of pasture land and agronomic crops including cereal crops, vegetables, forage crops, and seedlings of many other plants.^{[2] [12] [3] [13] [14] [15] [16]}

Further reading

Identification

• Duda. 1930. Bibionidae. In: Lindner, E. (Ed.). Die Fliegen der Paläarktischen Region 2, 1, 4, 1–75. Keys to Palaearctic species but now needs revision (in German).
• Hardy, D.E. et al., 1958. Guide of the insects of Connecticut PartVI. The Diptera or true flies of Connecticut Sixth Fascicle: March flies and gall midges. Bibionidae, Itonididae (Cecidomiidae). Conn. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv. Bull. 87, 218 pp., 15 pl., 29 figs.
• Hardy . D.E. . 1967 . The Bibionidae (Diptera) of Nepal, results of the Austrian and the B.P. Bishop Museum.Expeditions, 1961 and 1965 . Pacific Insects . 9 . 3. 519–536 .
• Hardy . D.E. . Delfinado . M.D . 1969 . The Bibionidae (Diptera) of the Philippines . Pacific Insects . 11 . 1. 117–154 .
• Krivosheina, N. P. Family Bibionidae in Bei-Bienko, G. Ya, 1988 Keys to the insects of the European Part of the USSR Volume 5 (Diptera) Part 2 English edition. Keys to Palaearctic species but now needs revision.
• Séguy, E. (1940) Diptères: Nématocères. Paris: Éditions Faune de France 36 BibliothequeVirtuelleNumerique

Species lists

• West Palaearctic including Russia
• Nearctic
• Australasian/Oceanian
• Japan

Images

• Diptera.info
• BugGuide

External links

• • multiple images including photomicrographs at Encyclopaedia of Life Plecia nearctica, lovebug on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site

Notes and References

1. Hetrick . L. A. . 1970 . Biology of the "Love-Bug", Plecia Nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae) . The Florida Entomologist . 53 . 1 . 23–26 . 10.2307/3493110 . 3493110 . 0015-4040.
2. Book: Hardy. D.E.. McAlpine. J.F.. Bibionidae. in: Manual of Nearctic Diptera. Agriculture Canada. Ottawa. 0-660-10731-7. 217–222. 13 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161104203818/http://www.esc-sec.ca/aafcmonographs/manual_of_nearctic_diptera_vol_1.pdf. 2016-11-04. dead. 1989.
3. Book: Freeman, Paul . Lane, Richard P. . 1985 . Bibionid and Scatopsid flies, Diptera: Bibionidae & Scatopsidae . 9 . 7 . . 74 . . London . Print .
4. Coquillett. Daniel W.. New North American Diptera. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 1904. 6. 166–192. 13 August 2017.
5. Edwards. Frederick W. New Neotropical Bibionnae (Diptera). Stylops. 1935. 4. 19–24.
6. Hong. Y.. Wang. W.-I.. Miocene Emboptera [Embioptera] and Coleoptera (Insecta) of Shanwang, Shandong Province, China. Prof. Pap. Stratigr. Palaeontol. 1987. 17. 257–262.
7. Meigen. J. W.. Versuch einer neuen Gattungs-Eintheilung der europaischen zweiflugligen Insekten. Mag. Insektenkd. 1803. 2. 259–281.
8. Hardy. D. Elmo. Notes and descriptions of exotic Bibionidae. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 1961. 63. 81–99. 12 August 2017.
9. Book: Hong. Y. C.. Amber insects of China. [iv]. 2002. Beijing Science and Technology Press. Beijing. 653 pp., 48 pls.
10. Carpenter. Frank M.. Substitute names for some extinct genera of fossil insects. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 1986. 92. 4. 575–582. 24 August 2017. 10.1155/1985/62623. free.
11. Rohdendorf. B. B.. The evolution of the wing and the phylogeny of Oligoneura (Diptera, Nematocera). Trudy Paleontol. Inst. 1946. 13. 2. 1–108, 16 pls.
12. Darvas, B., Skuhravá, M., Andersen, A., 2000, Agricultural dipteran pests of the Palaearctic Region. In: Papp, L., Darvas, B. (Eds.). Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera with Special Reference to Flies of Economic Importance. Science Herald, Budapest, 565–649.
13. Bollow, H. 1954. Die Landwirtschaftlich wichtigen Haarmticken. Z. PflBau PflSchutz 5 (49): 197–232.
14. Maier-Bode, [-]. 1936. Die Gartenhaarmticke (Bibio hortulanus) als Roggen-schiidling. NachrBl. dt. PflSchutzdienst., Berl. 16: 10.
15. Spitzer, K. 1966. An example of severe damage to planted potatoes by the garden March fly (Bibio hortulanus L.) [in Czeckoslovakian]. Ochr. Rost. 2(39):81–82.
16. Strickland . E. H. . 1916 . The March fly (Bibio abbreviatus) in grain fields and as a pest of celery . Agric. Gaz. Can. . 3 . 600–603 .