| Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary 3,900,099,099 visitors served. |
Dictionary/ thesaurus | Medical dictionary | Legal dictionary | Financial dictionary | Acronyms | Idioms | Encyclopedia | Wikipedia encyclopedia | ? |
Bombyliidae |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia | 0.01 sec. |
|
|
Bombyliidae [‚bäm·bə′lī·ə‚dē]
(invertebrate zoology) The bee flies, a family of dipteran insects in the suborder Orthorrhapha. Bombyliidae (the bee flies), a family of dipterous insects of the suborder Brachycera. The body measures about 10 mm long. The wings are long; the legs are long and thin. Many Bombyliidae have a long proboscis. There are about 3,000 species; they are distributed mainly in the arid tropics and subtropics. In the USSR the Bombyliidae are especially numerous in Middle Asia. They fly well; they frequently hover over flowers and suck the nectar. The development of most Bombyliidae is characterized by hyper metamorphosis; the larvae are mobile as soon as they are hatched from the egg. The Bombyliidae mostly parasitize insects. They infest the egg sacs of the Acrididae (Systoechus, Anastoechus) and parasitize moth caterpillars or Ichneumonidae larvae. Bombylius larvae live in the nests of solitary bees. REFERENCEZhizn’ zhivotnykh, vol. 3. Moscow, 1969.Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|
| Encyclopedia |
| Free Tools: |
For surfers:
Free toolbar & extensions |
Word of the Day |
Help
For webmasters: Free content | Linking | Lookup box | Double-click lookup |
|---|