Open AccessBIOGEOGRAPHY OF INOPUS RUBRICEPS (MACQUART) (DIPTERA: STRATIOMYIDAE)
Author(s) -
Robertson L. N.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
australian journal of entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1440-6055
pISSN - 1326-6756
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-6055.1985.tb00251.x
Subject(s) - subtropics , temperate climate , biogeography , range (aeronautics) , biology , ecology , larva , composite material , materials science
The distribution of the sugarcane soldier fly, Inopus rubriceps is mapped in its native Australia, as well as in the introduced range, New Zealand and California. Populations are discontinuous, and apparently determined by warm temperatures (> 12.8 °C mean annual temperature) and high rainfall (> 750 mm/yr in warm temperate or > 1000 mm/yr in subtropical/tropical regions). Larvae are found only in friable and free‐draining soils, largely alluvial or basaltic in origin. Populations in several widely separated areas of eastern and southern Australia are probably reproductively isolated, although distribution may have been more continuous in the past. Southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales is the geographical centre of the range in Australia. No related species of Inopus occur in this area, and climate is genial for I. rubriceps. The species has probably had a long evolutionary history in this region.