Melaloncha Brues, 1904

Ament, Danilo César & Brown, Brian Victor, 2025, Phoridae (Diptera) mating behaviour: identification of general patterns, exceptions and the use of sexually dimorphic structures based on vast citizen science data, Journal of Natural History 59 (9 - 12), pp. 739-761 : 754

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2025.2461656

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14983194

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/D76CE478-4008-E524-FEB0-9E62FE8CA08E

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Melaloncha Brues
status

 

Melaloncha Brues View in CoL (total of six photos of two mating events examined: Figure 9A,B View Figure 9 )

The Melaloncha males have a considerably larger foretarsus than the female and in some species there is striking sexual dimorphism regarding general body colour ( Figure 9B View Figure 9 ). In the two mating events examined, the females had their wings slightly lifted and angled in a ‘V’, and the males were touching the dorsum of the female abdomen with their enlarged foretarsi, possibly stimulating it ( Figure 9A,B View Figure 9 ). The morphological variation of the male foretarsus among Melaloncha species is not fully studied, as most species are described based on female specimens, but in general the structural details are similar to those found in Stichillus (above).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Phoridae

SubFamily

Metopininae

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