Diptera.info

Posted by von Tschirnhaus on 14-05-2015 15:25

Eutropha fulvifrons (Haliday, 1833), Chloropidae. This is one of the few chloropids closely bound to a specific biotope, sea shores with adjacent dunes or shores of inland salt water lakes. It has a wide distribution from the Near East via Egypt, North Africa to the Azores and northwards until Norway and Finland. I have seen one specimen in the sweep net in dunes of SW Iceland, the only specimen during 3 months collecting on Iceland – regrettably it escaped. The species has a very variable colouration, antennae and scutellum vary from yellow to dark, partly in the same population. Mediterranean flies are the lightest ones. A sexual colour dimorphism of palpi and antennae is noteworthy: both dark only in females. Hairs and bristles are always whitish. The biology is enigmatic though 125 publications deal with the species: Adolf Brauns (1949) in his 977pp. habilitation thesis „Die Dipterenfauna des Meeresstrandes …“ mentioned a die-back of Ammophila arenaria stands on German dunes caused by larval feeding. But he did not base this on rearing. Ardö (1957, Opusc. ent. Suppl. 14: 255 pp.) found puparia below Honckenya peploides. E. fulvifrons is known as a pollinator of this plant, Kali turgida and Cakile maritima. I placed yellow pan traps on the stripe of dead marine algae and Zostera marina (eelgrass) plants along the water line of the Baltic Sea: only there the species abundantly flew in the traps but not in a similar row of traps ten meters distant on primary dunes. Masses of Orchestia sp. (Amphipoda) were caught simultaneously. Males outnumberd females in all trials and sweep net collecting (sum 514 males, 175 females). The larval development seems to occur between the algae/seaweed or on dead marine animals but not in the stems of monocots. On tropical coasts of India, Madagascar and the Molukkas other Eutropha spp. occur in masses on pure stands of Ipomoea (Convolvulacea) mixed garbage and marine animal debris, partly my own observation. Kirk-Spriggs (2007, Afr. Ent. 15: 319-327) reared E. lindneri Sabrosky from carcasses of fur seals along the Namibian coast, a strange substrate for Chloropidae. Eutropha Loew spp. [= Pseudoformosina Malloch] occur on all continents of the Old World and the large Pacific islands. The synonyms of E. fulvifrons are omitted in the „Fauna Europaea“. They partly, mediterranea Becker and ruficornis Hendel, were confirmed by Spencer (1986, Colemania 3: 13-15). Théodoridès (1950, Vie et Milieu 1: 364) observed a mass aggregation of flies in dunes of S. France late at 22 November. He speculated that the adults possibly overwinter comparable to Thaumatomyia notata.

Edited by von Tschirnhaus on 15-05-2015 15:34