Fauna of New Zealand 71: Fanniidae (Insecta: Diptera) - Introduction
Domínguez, MC; Pont, AC 2014. Fauna of New Zealand. 71, 91 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
ISSN 1179-7193 (online)
;
no.
71.
ISBN 978-0-478-34745-6 (print),
ISBN 978-0-478-34746-3 (online)
).
Published 30 Jun 2014
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/1B70674A-0283-4696-80A8-03BC38ED4B28
DOI: 0.7931/J2/FNZ.71
Introduction
The Fanniidae Schnabl, 1911 (1888) is a small family of the Muscoidea (Diptera) with over 360 described species. Fanniids are found predominantly in temperate zones, with the majority of the species occurring in the Holarctic, although there is a considerable Neotropical element (Carvalho et al. 2003; Domínguez 2007; Grisales et al. 2012; Grisales et al. 2012a, b). However, the family has a worldwide distribution (Rozkošný et al. 1997).
The medical and hygienic importance of the widely distributed species of Fannia Robineau-Desvoidy, such as Fannia canicularis (Linnaeus), Fannia femoralis (Stein), Fannia incisurata (Zetterstedt), Fannia pusio (Wiedemann), and Fannia scalaris (Fabricius), is well known. Fannia canicularis and F. scalaris have been reared from a variety of decaying organic materials. Moreover, the larvae of F. scalaris are frequent in cesspools, latrines, and dunghills, having also been reared together with F. canicularis from human faeces. Some of the most abundant species occur regularly in agricultural pens used for breeding pigs, cattle, horses, and poultry, and in fur farms, where the larvae apparently develop in animal droppings and dung (Rozkošný et al. 1997).
The Fanniidae are basically inhabitants of forests, and are relatively rare in open landscapes and wetlands (Rozkošný et al. 1997). For example, species of the Fannia anthracina (Walker) species-group show distributions linked to the Notophagus forests endemic to Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia (Pont & Carvalho 1994; Domínguez 2007). However, the Neotropical Fannia fusconotata (Rondani) and Fannia heydenii (Wiedemann) have been found in open arid shrublands and open woodlands of Prosopis (Domínguez 2007), whilst in the Palaearctic region the widespread Fannia postica (Stein) is one of very few species to be found regularly above the tree-line in montane meadows (Pont 2009).
Males of almost all species form swarms under the branches of trees and along forest paths, with individuals following defined horizontal trajectories and frequently sparring with other individuals (Rozkošný et al. 1997). The exact significance of this energetic activity is not clear. Females are to be found in the ground vegetation and may be attracted to decaying organic matter and excrement, but a few so-called secretophagous species attack cattle in pastures as well as perspiring people in summer (Chillcott 1961).
Seven endemic species of Fanniidae have been described from Australia, including Norfolk and Lord Howe islands (Pont 1977a). Miller (1950) listed 4 species of Fannia from New Zealand, but Pont (1977a) found that 3 of these belong to the genus Spilogona Schnabl (Muscidae). Pont (1977a) recorded 2 almost cosmopolitan species, F. canicularis (Linnaeus) and Euryomma peregrinum (Meigen), as being the only fanniids occurring in New Zealand, and later (Pont 1989) also listed Fannia albitarsis Stein, based on Holloway’s (1985) work on the larvae. The most recent list (Macfarlane et al. 2010) included these three together with F. scalaris (Fabricius) with a question mark and several species known only as larvae. We have not seen any specimens of F. scalaris from New Zealand, and know of no published records of this species from New Zealand.
Holloway (1985) described the larvae of 9 species of Fanniidae occurring in New Zealand, 5 of them endemic. The others were F. canicularis, originally from Europe and now almost cosmopolitan; the pantropical E. peregrinum; F. albitarsis, a widespread South American species introduced into a number of Old World southern hemisphere localities; and a second, apparently undescribed, South American species (according to Holloway 1985). At the time, Holloway was working only with the larvae and puparia, and the associated adults were sent for study to A. C. Pont in the 1980s. These adults, together with subsequently collected material and comparison of the localities where adults and larvae were collected, have enabled us to identify Holloway’s species as follows:
sp. 1 Zealandofannia mystacina Domínguez & Pont, new genus, new species
sp. 2 Unidentified, and no adults associated with this larva found in our material
sp. 3 Fannia mercurialis Domínguez & Pont, new species
sp. 4 Fannia hollowayae Domínguez & Pont, new species
sp. 5 Fannia anthracinalis Domínguez & Pont, new species
sp. 6 Fannia laqueorum Domínguez & Pont, new species
Holloway’s sp. 2 was known only from Tarahiki Island (Shag Rock), off Waiheke Island (AK) from the lining of burrows of the grey-faced petrel (Pterodroma macroptera gouldi (Hutton)). We have not seen adults either from this locality or reared from the nest of this bird, but Holloway (1985: 252) also recorded her Fannia sp. 3 (our Fannia mercurialis n. sp.) from Tarahiki Island.
In the northern hemisphere, mushrooms and related basydiomycetous fungi together with the nests and burrows of birds, mammals, and insects, provide the most common larval habitats (Chillcott 1961; Rozkošný et al. 1997), but the principal food resource for the larvae of the endemic New Zealand species is the dung or carrion of indigenous seabirds and mammals (seals and bats) (Holloway 1985).
The results of a cladistic analysis of the family Fanniidae carried out by Domínguez & Roig-Juñent (2008) showed that the sister-groups of New Zealand and Australian species of Fannia were to be found among the southern South American species of Fannia. The new genus described here has a basal position in the family and appears to be the sister-group of the genus Fannia, preceded by the remaining genera of Fanniidae (Domínguez & Roig-Juñent 2008).
The purpose of the present study is to revise the New Zealand species of the family Fanniidae; to provide a key to the genera and species, both as adults and as larvae/puparia, together with descriptions and illustrations; and to provide distribution records.