Taxonomy and observations of three species of Brazilian Philornis Meinert (Diptera, Muscidae) and two new host species of cavity-nesting birds

Abstract

The mostly neotropical genus Philornis Meinert is associated with a variety of birds, where larvae can be free-living coprophagous, free-living semi-hematophagous, or subcutaneous hematophagous. The genus is taxonomically complicated because characters of some species are variable while others are more constant. Although most described Philornis species are taxonomically well known, larval biology and ecological associations with birds are less so. Here, during a study of cavity-nesting birds, we removed and collected subcutaneous larvae from young birds and pupae from nesting material in the nest boxes, that were then reared in the lab, from which we describe the adult male, larva, and puparium of Philornis obscurinervis Couri, 1984 and the puparium of Philornis diminutus Couri, 1984, and some associations of P. diminutus, Philornis falsificus Dodge & Aitken, 1968, and P. obscurinervis.