Asteia elegantula
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Asteiidae
- Genus: Asteia
- Species: Asteia elegantula
Visual Description
Asteia elegantula is a small, delicate fly characteristic of the family Asteiidae. Observations of specimens in the TreeOfLife-200M dataset reveal a slender body form with relatively long, thin legs. The wings are typically clear and held flat over the abdomen when at rest, extending beyond the posterior tip of the body. The thorax and abdomen exhibit a brownish coloration, with the head appearing somewhat rounded and bearing prominent, relatively large compound eyes.[1]
Distribution and Ecology
Asteia elegantula is a Palaearctic species with a broad distribution ranging from Spain in the west to the Far East of Russia.[2] Within the Czech Republic, it is considered an uncommon to rare species, primarily restricted to lower altitudes.
Adults are typically found in sunny margins of lowland deciduous or mixed forests and groves. While the species has been recorded in sandy habitats, it is not considered psammophilous; its presence in such areas is likely driven by its thermophilic nature and the availability of suitable forest-margin vegetation. The life history of A. elegantula remains largely unknown, though larvae are presumed to be (phyto)saprophagous microbial grazers that develop in decaying plant material.
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Asteiidae / Asteia / elegantula constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Jindřích Roháček. Acalyptrate flies (Diptera) on glacial sand deposits in the Hlučínsko region (NE Czech Republic): most interesting records. Acta Musei Silesiae. Scientiae Naturales. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/cszma-2016-0003.