Larval muscle attachment site (MAS) patterns are a conserved character among Piophilini flies (Diptera, Piophilidae)

Daniel Martín-Vega,Senta Niederegger

doi:10.3897/dez.62.5685

Daniel Martín-Vega, Senta Niederegger

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.62.5685

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Abstract

The dorsoventral muscle attachment sites (MAS) patterns are described for six species of the tribe Piophilini (Diptera: Piophilidae): Centrophlebomyia furcata (Fabricius), Liopiophila varipes (Meigen), Piophila casei (Linnaeus), Piophila megastigmata McAlpine, Prochyliza nigrimana (Meigen) and Stearibia nigriceps (Meigen). Comparison between the MAS patterns of Piophilini and previous descriptions for Calliphoridae (Diptera) revealed differences in the muscle equipment between the larvae of both taxa. Among the Piophilini, the MAS patterns were highly conserved and only a genus-specific pattern for Piophila species and a species-specific pattern for C. furcata were found. Nevertheless, these differences in MAS patterns were subtle and some intraspecific variability was observed; hence, the MAS patterns do not appear to be suitable as diagnostic characters allowing for species determination of Piophilini larvae.

Highlights

Lacking legs or prolegs, the larvae of Diptera Cyclorrhapha move by the contraction of longitudinal and dorsoventral muscles, increasing the haemolymph hydrostatic pressure (Roberts 1971)
Previous studies had described a variation in the muscle equipment between the larval segments of the same individual in different cyclorrhaphous species (Hewitt 1908; Niederegger and Spieβ 2012; Niederegger et al 2013, 2015; Wipfler et al 2013)
There is a progressive increase in the muscle equipment from segment S2 to segments S5–S10, but the number of muscles decreases drastically in the last abdominal segment (Fig. 1); this is in accordance with the observations of Wipfler et al (2013) on D. melanogaster

Summary

Introduction

The larvae of Diptera Cyclorrhapha move by the contraction of longitudinal and dorsoventral muscles, increasing the haemolymph hydrostatic pressure (Roberts 1971). In spite of its importance, the anatomy of these muscles has only been described for some cyclorrhaphous species; see for example the works of Hooper (1986), Bate (1990) and Wipfler et al (2013) on Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, Hewitt (1908) on Musca domestica Linnaeus, and Crossley (1965) and Hanslik et al (2010) on Calliphora vicina RobineauDesvoidy All of those studies described a great number of longitudinal muscles usually extending between two segmental borders, and a small number of dorsoventral muscles in the lateral, ventrolateral and dorsolateral regions of each segment (Wipfler et al 2013). Reliable identification of the material collected is crucial in forensic

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