Gymnosoma rotundatum explained

Gymnosoma rotundatum is a parasitoid fly found in Europe and Asia.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Description

Gymnosoma rotundatum, sometimes referred to as a ladybird fly, is a small 5-6mm long fly. It has a dark thorax, golden in males, and a globular orange abdomen decorated with dark rounded markings along the midline. The base of the wings are yellow-brown.^[4]

Behaviour

The larvae grow as parasites of shield bugs in the Pentatomidae family. In Britain, the species is often recorded in warm dry sites, where it visits a range of open shallow flowers.^[5]

Distribution

British Isles, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Denmark, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Corsica, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Russia, Transcaucasia, China, Japan, Taiwan.

Notes and References

1. Smith . M. The genome sequence of Gymnosoma rotundatum (Linnaeus, 1758), a parasitoid ladybird fly. . Wellcome Open Research . 2022 . 7 . 104 . 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17782.1 . 35419492 . 8987346. free.
2. Book: Chandler, Peter J. . 1998 . Checklists of Insects of the British Isles (New Series) Part 1: Diptera . . 12 . 1 . 1–234 . 0-901546-82-8 . . London .
3. Web site: O’Hara . James E. . Henderson . Shannon J. . D. Monty . Wood . Preliminary Checklist of the Tachinidae (Diptera) of the World. Tachinidae Resources . 21 August 2023 . 5 March 2020.
4. Web site: Ladybird Flies - Gymnosoma rotundatum - UK Safari . 2023-06-08 . www.uksafari.com.
5. Jang . Sin Ae . Park . Chung Gyoo . 2010-03-01 . Gymnosoma rotundatum (Diptera: Tachinidae) attracted to the aggregation pheromone of Plautia stali (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) . Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology . en . 13 . 1 . 73–75 . 10.1016/j.aspen.2009.11.004 . 2010JAsPE..13...73J . 1226-8615.