Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 19, 2026
Laboratory Maintenance of the Lower Dipteran Fly Bradysia (Sciara) coprophila: A New/Old Emerging Model Organism
Published on: April 19, 2024
THE TRUE IDENTITY OF COPELAND'S AQUATIC SCUTTLE FLY (DIPTERA: PHORIDAE) FROM INDIANA AND RECOGNITION OF A SIBLING
R Henry L Disney1, Robert S Copeland, Ebony Murrell
1(RHLD) Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, England ( rhld2@hermes.ca.mac.uk ); (RSC) International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772, Nairobi 00100, Kenya ( hunteriazeylanica@yahoo.com ); (EM) Illinois State University, Department of Biological Sciences, Campus Box 4120, Normal, IL 61790-4120, U.S.A. ( egmurr@ilstu.edu ).
Abstract:
Among the insects reported by Copeland (1989) breeding in the waters retained by treeholes in Indiana was a scuttle fly identified by W. H. Robinson as Megaselia scalaris (Loew). It is here reported that in fact this fly, along with fresh material from Illinois and Missouri, is M. imitatrix Borgmeier, whose type series was from Puerto Rico. An aquatic species reported from Texas is recognized as a sibling species of M. imitatrix and is named M. hansonix Disney, sp. nov. A single female from Brazil represents a third species of this complex, thus raising doubts about the identity of specimens from Brazil attributed to M. imitatrix by Benton and Claugher (2000).
