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Scellus
Sign in to saveScellus is a genus of flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It is distributed in the Palearctic and Nearctic.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderDiptera
- FamilyDolichopodidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 245
- With media
- 2
- Family
- Dolichopodidae
- Collections
- UMNH, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH, CENTRE FOR BIODIVERSITY GENOMICS, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
- Recorded in
- United States, Canada
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Image
- Scellus notatus.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- taxon name
- Scellus
- taxon rank
- genus
- topic's main category
- Category:Scellus
- Commons category
- Scellus
- diel cycle
- diurnality
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- Species
- References
Scellus is a genus of flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It is distributed in the Palearctic and Nearctic.
Males of the genus have a pair of flag-like appendages, known as "signa" (singular "signum"), that emanate laterally from between the 4th and 5th abdominal segments. These appendages are connected together by a band under the sternites, forming a U-shaped structure called the "cingulum". It has been suggested by researchers that these appendages are used for visual signalling or pheromone dispersal during courtship. The genus Hydatostega also has a cingulum, but much reduced, suggesting that Scellus and Hydatostega are closely related.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Scellus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.