Courtship-structures

Guides

• Scellus

  long-legged flies

  Scellus is a genus of long-legged flies in the family Dolichopodidae, distributed across the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. Males possess distinctive flag-like abdominal appendages called signa, connected by a U-shaped cingulum, which likely function in courtship signaling. The genus is closely related to Hydatostega, which shares a reduced form of this structure.

  Dolichopodidaelong-legged-fliescingulumsignacourtship-structuresmoist-habitatspredatoryPalearcticNearcticEuropesummer-activity