Vol 10 Part 14. An introduction to the immature stages of British Flies ...

(Memoires); Museu de Zoologia, Universidad de Sao Paulo (Papeis Dep. Zoo/. S.
Paulo); Parasitica, Gembloux (Seeger & Maldague); Royal Entomological Society of
London (Proceedings, Transactions, Handbk !dent. Br. Insects, Antenna, J . ent. (A) &
(B), Syst. Ent.); Royal Society, London (Phi/. Trans. Hinton, Mad war); Schweizerbart
Verlag, Stuttgart (Die Fliegen der Palaearktischen Region, Engel, Hennig); Societe
Entomologique Suisse, Lausanne (Mitt. Schweiz ent. Ges); Societe Zoologique de
France, Paris (Bulletin); Staatlichen Museum fiir Naturkunde, Stuttgart (Stuttg. Beitr.
Naturk.); Taylor & Francis Ltd., London (Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., Keilin); Zoological
Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw; Institute of Evolutionary Morphology
& Ecology of Animals, of the USSR Academy of Sciences and "Nauka"
Publishers, Moscow; Zoological Society of London (Proceedings, Transactions, J.
Zoo/., Frew); Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, Moscow.
I thank the following for very kindly providing original photographs: A. E. MeR.
Pearce (figs 89-91), Dr K. M. Harris and J. Brown (figs 123-5) and B. van Aartsen and
G. Helmers Jr. (fig. 270).
For providing specimens, literature or information on Diptera larvae over the years I
am indebted to: Dr Peter Bailey, L. Christie, Prof. A. F . G . Dixon, Dr Y. Z.
Erzinc;Iioglu, N. French, D. Green, Dr K. M . Harris, Prof. B. Herting, the late Prof. W.
Hennig, the late Prof. H. E. Hinton, F.R.S., the late Dr B. M. Hobby, Dr A. G. Irwin,
Dr D . P. Knight, Dr B. R. Laurence, Dr Jane Marshall, P. M. Miles, Dr A. J. Pontin,
Dr M. W. Shaw, Dr M. C. D. Speight, C. Vardy, the late Prof. G . C. Varley, P. Withers,
London and Whipsnade Zoos (Zoological Society of London), and all those veterinarians,
pathologists, forensic scientists, environmental health and Ministry of
Agriculture (ADAS) officers too numerous to mention here individually, though
some are credited in the text for particular records.
Adrian Pont very kindly helped me with translating the subtleties of the German and
Russian languages, thus avoiding many misinterpretations from the literature.
Finally I thank my wife for her careful and critical preparation of the typescript, her
painstaking proof-reading and compilation of the index, and her enthusiastic support
throughout my entomological activities.
Life-histories and ecology
Flies are highly adaptive insects and their larvae develop successfully in a very wide
range of media, e.g. soil, rotting wood, plant and animal tissues (including man, alive or
dead), fungi, dung and sewage, water (mostly fresh, sometimes brackish, occasionally
marine), hot springs and geysers (some Ephydridae, Stratiomyidae) and even in petroleum
pools (Halaeomyia, Ephydridae). Diptera exploit most of the available ecological
niches in most of the biological roles, e.g. saprophages (many), commensals (some
Scatopsidae, Chironomidae and Phoridae), predators (many), parasites (many),
symbionts (some Chironomidae and algae) and scavengers.
Most of the protein feeding is done in the larval stage and the adults mostly need
water to replace that lost during activity, especially flight, and sugars, from nectar or
honeydew, to provide their energy. Some adults also take protein, e.g. predators, blood
feeders, pollen feeders.
As a rule, aquatic larvae are carnivorous or live on algae. Apart from predators,
the precise nature of the food taken by terrestrial larvae is often inadequately
known. Thus the larva of the bluebottle (Calliphora) is classed as a carrion feeder but in
fact bacteria on the carrion are probably the main food source (Roberts, 1971 a).
Similarly bacteria are probably the main source of food and vitamins for housefly
larvae (Levinson, 1960). Baumberger( 1919) found that many supposedly saprophagous
fly larvae are actually mycetophagous. Clearly there is plenty of scope for careful
research here.
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