Rediscovery of the 'terrible hairy fly',Mormotomyia hirsutaAusten (Diptera: Mormotomyiidae), in Eastern Kenya, with Notes on Biology, Natural History, and Genetic Variation of the Ukasi Hill Population
| Autor: | Brian M. Wiegmann, Samuel Muteti, Robert S. Copeland, Warren Booth, Ashley H. Kirk-Spriggs |
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| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: |
education.field_of_study
Larva biology Ecology Population Paleontology Vertebrate Zoology biology.organism_classification Tadarida aegyptiaca Biospeleology Insect Science biology.animal Mormotomyiidae Guano Animal Science and Zoology Type locality education Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | African Invertebrates. 52:363-390 |
| ISSN: | 1681-5556 |
| Popis: | Sixty-two years since last observed alive, Mormotomyia hirsuta Austen, the “terrible hairy fly”, was found inside and outside a large, cave-like cleft boulder at the summit of Ukasi Hill in eastern Kenya, the type locality of the species. Adults were observed climbing the walls of the boulder and walking on thick layers of bat guano, in which larvae and puparia were also discovered. Large numbers of M. hirsuta were observed on and at the base of the northern side of the boulder, which at the time of capture experienced continuous shade during daylight hours. Only three individuals were observed at the southern opening, exposed to direct sunlight and hot, dry conditions. A collection of vertebrate bones and skulls from layers of guano both inside and outside the cleft revealed several vertebrate associates, including two species of Chiroptera, Chaerephon cf. bivittatus (Heuglin) and Tadarida aegyptiaca (E. Geoffroy), which are probably the two major guano-producing species responsible for the larv... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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