Timia Wiedemann 1824

Galinskaya, Tatiana V., 2011, Review of the yellow-bodied species of the genus Timia (Diptera: Ulidiidae) with description of two new species, Zootaxa 2888, pp. 1-22 : 1-2

Timia Wiedemann 1824

Type species: Timia erythrocephala Pallas in Wiedemann, 1824 (by monotypy).

Diagnosis. Timia species are yellow or black flies. Frons usually with dents and bumps, shining or subshining, sometimes with white microtrichose areas. Antennal grooves deep, oval, well-separated by wide facial carina. Thorax and abdomen shining or shagreened, sometimes almost matt, sometimes with green metallic shine, often with microtrichose areas. Wings hyaline, some species with dark cells bc, c, sc and apical spot on wing. Male genitalia: epandrium with deep notch at apex; phallus long, coiled and partially flattened tube divided into two halves; pair of sclerotized taeniae ending approximately at its mid-length; another pair of taeniae beginning at phallus middle almost reaching phallus apex; phallus apical half bearing long membranous caecum-like membranous appendix. Distiphallus apex bowed and bearing numerous sclerotized cuticular spurs, and “glans” formed by hooks or lobes surrounding gonopore. Surstylus hook-like, sometimes with expressed postero-dorsal lobe. Cerci clearly bilobed. Female terminalia: aculeus moderately long and wide, with oval cercal unit; three spherical spermathecae with smooth or micropapillose surface.

Remarks. Adults of Timia species, as well as many other ulidiid, feed mainly on various organic residues (decaying plant tissue, animal corpses, excrements). In arid habitats the surface of organic residues is quickly covered with dried crust, under which semi-liquid substrate remains for a relatively long time. The proboscis of Timia has longitudinal rows of pointed outgrowths located on the labellum; flies make a hole in such a crust by these appendages and then penetrate with long tubular appendage of the proboscis in it, then absorbing semi-liquid food ( Zaitzev, 1982).

Sometimes it is difficult to separate Timia from Ulidia Meigen, 1826 . The differences used so far are mainly as follow: the frons smooth (in Timia ) or dimpled (in Ulidia ) (with some exceptions), head and thorax microtrichose (in Timia ) or bare (in Ulidia , but some assigned to Timia have shiny head and thorax, and Ulidia metope Kameneva, 2010 has frons widely microtrichose) ( Chen & Kameneva, 2009). The genus Ulidia contains no yellow representatives.