Diptera Asilidae: India
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Diptera Asilidae
Introduction
The Asilidae, or robber flies, comprises one of the largest and abundant families of Diptera. Their adults and larvae are predaceous, feeding on other insects, especially on phytophagous insects, and thus help to maintain the natural balance of insect populations. They, therefore, have considerable potential in biological control.
The asilids are elongate bristly flies with a horny proboscis, frons excavated above, ocelli situated on a rounded tubercle, mystax between eye margin and above epistome, antennae three segmented with or without style or arista on flagellum; thorax convex; legs stout, prehensile, empodium bristle-like and pulvilli pad-like; wings with one marginal, two to three submarginal, and four to five posterior cells; abdomen eight-segmented with prominent hypopygium and ovipositor.
Historical Resume
Linnaeus (1758) in the tenth edition of "Systema Naturae" erected the genus Asilus. Family status was given by Leach (1819) based on Asilus crabroniformis Linnaeus as the type of family. Macquart (1838) divided me family into ~ilites, Dasypogonites and Laphrites. In 1847, Loew divided it into subfamilies: Dasypogoninae, Laphriinae and Asilinae. Later Schiner (1868) added Leptogastrinae. This system was followed by subsequent workers, notable among them being Hermann (1920), Efflatoun (1934), Bromley (1934,1935) and Martin (1957). Hardy (1934) divided the family into two subfamilies based on the number of palpal segments, viz., two-segmented Dasypogoninae and one-segmented Asilinae. Carrera (1949)followed Hardy's classification.
Hull (1962) studied the world genera and proposed a new classification. He divided'the family into five subfamilies: Asilinae, Dasypogoninae, Megapodinae, Laphriinae and Leptogastrinae. Hull's classification is often opposed because it attaches too much importance to the number of segments of palpus. Martin (1968) elevated Leptogastrinae to family rank. Papavero (1973) gave a detailed history of classification ~nd divided the family' into eight subfamilies:• Asilinae, Apocleinae, Uasypogoninae, Laphriinae, Laphystiinae, Ommatiinae, Stenopogoninae and Trigonomiminae. Unfortunately this scheme attaches too much significance to the tibial spur. Thus, there is no agreed opinion on the division of family into subfamilies, but many follow the classification of Oldroyd (1974) for the sake of convenience. Oldroyd followed the earlier classification of Williston (1908), Hermann (1920) and others. It is based on the characters of palpus, antenna and venation, and includes four subfamilies: Asilinae, Dasypogoninae, Laphriinae and ~ptogastrinae; the subfamily Megapodinae of Hull (1962) is included in the Dasypogoninae.
In 1758 Linnaeus described 11 species under Asilus and later in 1767 he added 4 more species to it Fabricius (1775-1805) described 76 species, and Wiedemann (1817-30) erected 235 species~ The other notable workers include Macquart (1826-49), Walker (1837-71), Loew (1840-81). Rondani (1845-75), Bigot (1852-92), Schiner (1854-68), Osten Sacken (1&58-92), Lynch (1879¬83), Roeder (1881-90), Williston (1884-1908), Becker (1887-1926). Strobl (1893-1909) and Villeneuve (1904-33). Outstanding contributions were made by Hermann (1905-26) on the Oriental, Hardy (1917-51) on the Australian, Engel (1925-30) on the Palaearctic, Efflatoun (1927¬37) on the Ethiopian and Hobby (1931-48) on the Nearctic Asilidae. Hull (1962) in his monumental work monographed the world genera giving along with the distributional records of all the then known species. Wiedemann (1817-30), Doleschall (1856-58), van der Wulp (1872), Ricardo (1900-27), de Meijere (1907-24), Hermann (1914-17), Frey (1911-37), Bromley (1935-38),
Oldroyed (1938-75) and Joseph &Parui (1970) have contributed several papers on the Oriental fauna.
Estimation or Taxa
Asilids are common in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In temperate countries they are common in wet or swampy localities and forests. Forest dwelling species are usually centered at places where shrubs are predominant. Considerable number of species have limited distribution. As for example, more than 50 examples. of Clephydroneura brevipennis Oldroyd could be collected in December 1975, in a couple of hours, from a locality of about 75 m2, situated in the boundary between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but in the adjoining areas with near by similar habitat they were found' scarce. Other workers have also reported similar observations. Many predominant genera and species are found in widely separated localities within the same geographical region.
The Asilidae are distributed throughout the world. Of th~ over 400 genera only seven namely Stichopogon Loew, Leptogaster Meigen, Andrenosoma Rondani, Pogonosoma Rondani, Ommatius Wiedemann, Promachus Loew and Neoitamus Osten Sacken are widely distributed in all the zoogeographical regions. The zoogeography of the Oriental fauna is however, poorly studied. Hoplopheromerus Becker, Oligoschema Becker, Damalina Doleschall, Trigonomima Enderlein, Orthogonis Hermann, Laloides Oldroyd, Anoplothyrea•de Meijere, Dichaetothyrea de Meijere are restricted to the Oriental region and Clephydroneura Becker, Laxenecera Macquart, Cyrtopogon Loew, MerQdontina Enderlein, Pseudomerodontina Joseph &Parui and Pseudonusa Joseph &Parui are restricted to the Indian subcontinent, except for one species Clephydroneura bengalensis (Macquart) which is known from Java, Sumatra and Philippines.
Over 400 genera and about 5000 species of Asilidae are distributed through all parts of world. Of these, 83 genera of about 800 species are known from the Oriental region. To date 482 species under 55 genera are recorded from India. Of the Indian fauna, 232 species have been proposed by Joseph and Parui, and they are preparing a volume 'Fauna of.India' on this family.
Expertise India
In ZSI
A. N. T. Joseph, ZSI, Marine Biological Station, 100, Santhome High Road, Madras-600 028'.
P. Parui, ZSI, M-Block, New Allpor, Calcutta-700 053.
Elsewhere
Kumar Ghorpade, P.O. Box 2564~ 123, Brigade Road, Bangalore.
Abroad
A. N. Clements, Department of Entomology, London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC IE 7 HT (U.K.).
M. Hradsky, Mlekovice 40, CS -281-44 Zasmuky (Czechoslovakia).
R. Lavigne, Prof. of Entomology, The University of Wyoming, Plant Science Division,. College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, Agricultural Building, Laramie Wyoming -80271 (U.S.A.).
P. Lehr, Institute of Biology &Pedology, Far East Scientific Centre, USSR Academy of Sciences, VLADIVOSTOK 22, 690022 (U.S.S.R.).
J. G. H. Londt, Assistant Director, The Natal Museum, 237 Loop Street, Pietennaritzburg 3201, Natal, (South Africa). A. Nagatomi, Entomological Laboratory" Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University, lCagoshima, 890(Japan).
A. G. Scarbrough, Department of Biological Sciences, Towson State University, Towson, Maryland 21204 (U.S.A.)
L. Tscas, Centre National De La Recherche Scietltifique, Laboratoire De Biologie Et Genetique Evolutives, Place De L'eglise 91190 Gif-Sur-Yvette, (France).
Selected References
Bromley, S. W. 1935. New Asilidae from India (Insecta: Diptera). Ree. Indian Mus. 37: 219-230.
Hu1i. F. M. 1962. Robber flies of the world. The genera of the family Asilidae -U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull. Washington 224; pts.I-2: i-x, 1-907 pp.
Joseph, A. N. T. &, Parui, P. 1983. A Review of the Asilidae from the Oriental Region. Oriental Ins. 17 : 269-393.
Joseph, A. N. T. &Parui, P .. 1990. A Review of the Asilidae (Diptera) from India. Rec. zool. Surv. India, Oec. Paper, No. 133 : 1-122.
Lal, R. 1960. Catalogue of Indian Insects, part 29, Asilidae : Diptera. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi: i-ii, 1-77.
Oldroyd, H. 1975. Family Asilidae, In: Delfinado and Hardy, A Catalog ofDiptera of•the Oriental Region, Vol. 2 : 99-156. Univ. of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
Ricardo, G. 1922. Notes on the Asilinae of the South Africa and Oriental Regions. Ann. Mag. Mt. Hist. (9) 10 : 36-73.
