Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) ➔ Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods) ➔ Class Insecta (Insects) ➔ Order Diptera (True flies) ➔ Family Tabanidae (Clegs, deer flies, horse flies)
Chrysops rufipes Meigen, 1820
Classification:
Chrysops rufipes belongs to the subfamily Chrysopsinae.Distribution:
Europe.Habitat:
Sedimentation zones of lakes and alluvial plains with watercourses passing through.Description:
Small predominantly black to dark brown species; mesonotum indistinctly striped; wings with undefined brown pattern; discal cell brown, only slightly paler in the middle; anal cell open.Male: Eyes narrowly separated; legs bicoloured, extensively darkened, at least the posterior parts of the tibiae are brown; first antennal segment broad, thickened, but rather short, as long as 2/3 of the head width.
Female: Eyes clearly separated; legs brownish, at least at the posterior part of the tibiae.
The 7 species of the genus Chrysops occurring in Germany differ in details of the abdominal pattern on the 1st and 2nd tergit.
Biology:
Chrysops rufipes flies from June to August. The rare species is closely associated with peat mosses (Sphagnum) and sedges (Carex).References, further reading, links:
- M. Mally: Teil XIX k: Fam.: Tabanidae in Catalogue Faunae Austriae, Ein systematisches Verzeichnis aller auf österreichischem Gebiet festgestellten Tierarten, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1989.
- E. Völlger, M. Jeremies: Bestimmungsschlüssel für mitteleuropäische Bremsen (Dipt., Tabanidae), Entomologische Nachrichten und Berichte, 29, 1985/1, 1-11.
- Stjepan Krčmar, Davorka K. Hackenberger, Branimir K. Hackenberger: Key to the horse flies fauna of Croatia (Diptera, Tabanidae); Periodicum Biologorum, Vol. 113, Suppl 2, 2011, ISSN 0031-5362.