Bibionidae

"March fly" redirects here. In Australia, this term refers to the horse-flies, an unrelated dipteran family.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the Italian Wikipedia. (April 2012) Don't speak Italian? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the Italian article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|it|Bibionidae}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Bibionidae
Bibio johannis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Suborder:	Nematocera
Infraorder:	Bibionomorpha
Superfamily:	Bibionoidea
Family:	Bibionidae
Genera
Bibio Geoffroy, 1762 Bibiodes Coquillett, 1904 Bibionellus Edwards, 1935 Clothonopsis (fossil, dubious taxon) Dilophus Meigen, 1803 Enicoscolus Hardy, 1961 Fushunoplecia(fossil) Hesperinus Walker, 1848 Heteroplecia Hardy, 1950 Lithosomyia (fossil) Mesopleciella (fossil) Penthetria Meigen, 1803 Plecia Wiedemann, 1828

Bibionidae (march flies and lovebugs) is a family of flies (Diptera). Approximately 650-700 species are known worldwide.

Biology

Bibionid larvae grow up in grassy areas and are herbivores and scavengers feeding on dead vegetation or living plant roots. Some species are found in compost (Hardy, 1981). Adults of Plecia and some species of Bibio do not eat, but subsist solely on the food taken in during the larval stage. Adult stage bibionids are quite short-lived, and some species of Plecia (lovebugs) spend much of their adult lifetime copulating. The slow-flying male and female attach themselves at the rear of the abdomen and remain that way at all times, even in flight. Adults swarm after synchronous emergence, sometimes in enormous numbers.

See also detail under Lovebug

Fossil record

Bibionids have the most extensive fossil record of any Diptera family. Fossil bibionids are known questionably from the Jurassic, while some forms from the early part of the Upper Cretaceous look quite similar to modern species. Bibionid flies are very abundant among insect fossils from the Tertiary period, and a large number of species have been described, although often based on highly fragmentary material. Most fossil species are easily identified with extant genera. In particular, the genera Plecia and Bibio are abundant among Tertiary fossils. Fossils from Europe include a large number of specimens of the mainly tropical genus Plecia which is today entirely absent from Europe, demonstrating a warmer climate during the Tertiary.

Economic Importance

Adults are important pollinators. Some larvae are serious plant pests, especially of grassland and other agronomic crops including vegetables (Hardy 1981; Darvas et al. 2000).^[1]

Literature (identification)

• Hardy, D.E. et al., 1958. Guide of the insects of Connecticut PartVI. The Diptera or true flies of Connecticut Sixth Fascicle: March flies and gall midges. Bibionidae, Itonididae (Cecidomiidae). Conn. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv. Bull. 87, 218 pp., 15 pl., 29 figs.
• Hardy, D.E. ,1967. The Bibionidae (Diptera) of Nepal, results of the Austrian and the B.P. Bishop Museum.Expeditions, 1961 and 1965. Pacific Insects 9(3): 519–536.
• Hardy, D.E. and Delfinado, M.D,1969. The Bibionidae (Diptera) of the Philippines. Pacific Insects 11(1): 117–154.

Gallery

This section looks like an image gallery. Wikipedia policy discourages galleries of random images of the article subject; please improve or remove the section accordingly, moving freely licensed images to Wikimedia Commons if not already hosted there.

• 

  Bibio marci

• 

  Bibio hortulanus

• 

  Bibio pomonae

Species Lists

• West Palaearctic including Russia
• Nearctic
• Australasian/Oceanian
• Japan

Images

• Diptera.info

• BugGuide

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bibionidae

• Plecia nearctica, lovebug on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site