Mythicomyiidae

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Mythicomyiidae

Undescribed psiloderoidine genus from Australia.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Suborder:	Brachycera
Superfamily:	Asiloidea
Family:	Mythicomyiidae Melander , 1902

Subfamilies

Psiloderoidinae
Platypyginae
Glabellulinae
Empidideicinae
Leylaiyinae
Mythicomyiinae

Mythicomyiids are very tiny flies (0.5–5.0 mm) found throughout most parts of the world, especially desert and semi-desert regions, except the highest altitudes and latitudes. They are not as common in the tropics, but genera such as Cephalodromia and Platypygus are known from these regions. Many of these "microbombyliids" have humpbacked thoraces and lack the dense vestiture common in Bombyliidae. Mythicomyiids have until recently not had much attention in the literature. Their small size has caused them to be missed when collecting. Yellow pan trapping and fine-mesh netting in Malaise and aerial sweep nets has resulted in a tremendous amount of undescribed material from many parts of the world. A high amount of diversity of both genera and species exists for this family in Africa, especially northern and southern portions. Approximately 350 species are known (most in the genus Mythicomyia Coquillett). Hundreds more await description.

Because of their extremely small size and curious body shapes, some genera have been at times placed in Acroceridae or Empididae. Originally, taxa were placed in the subfamily Mythicomyiinae in the Empididae. Then later they were transferred to the Bombyliidae, where mythicomyiids have long been treated. Zaitzev (1991) was the first to give characters warranting raising the group to family level. Subsequent workers have followed Zaitzev's lead and treat the group as a separate family. The family is separated from the Bombyliidae by the unbranched wing vein R4+5 (branched in Bombyliidae), the extremely reduced or absent maxillary palpi (present in Bombyliidae), wings held together over the abdomen at rest (held at an angle in Bombyliidae), and the abdominal spiracles being placed in the terga (placed in the pleural membrane in Bombyliidae). Augmenting the morphological characters, it is also a much older lineage than any known Bombyliidae, dating from as far back as the Middle Jurassic (Palaeoplatypygus Kovalev; Callovian: 163–168 mya) with other genera known from the Cretaceous (Procyrtosia Hennig and Proplatypygus Zaitzev). Bombyliidae, on the other hand are not known from any older fossil material than Eocene Baltic amber deposits (Lutetian to Rupelian: 30–52 mya).

[edit] Genera

Acridophagus Evenhuis, 1983
Ahessea Greathead & Evenhuis, 2001
Borissovia Evenhuis, 2003
Carmenelectra Evenhuis, 2003
Cephalodromia Becker, 1914
Cyrtisiopsis Séguy, 1930
Cyrtosia Perris, 1839
Doliopteryx Hesse, 1938
Elachymyia Hall & Evenhuis, 1987
Empidideicus Becker, 1907
Eurodoliopteryx Nel, 2006
Glabellula Bezzi, 1902
Glella Greathead & Evenhuis, 2001
Hesychastes Evenhuis, 2002
Heterhybos Brèthes, 1919
Leylaiya Efflatoun, 1945
Mnemomyia Bowden, 1975
Mythenteles Hall & Evenhuis, 1986
Mythicomyia Coquillett, 1893
Nexus Hall & Evenhuis, 1987
Onchopelma Hesse, 1938
Palaeoplatypygus Kovalev, 1985
Paraconsors Hall & Evenhuis, 1987
Pieza Evenhuis, 2002
Platypygus Loew, 1844
Procyrtosia Zaitzev, 1986
Proplatypygus Hennig, 1969
Pseudoglabellula Hesse, 1967
Psiloderoides Hesse, 1967
Reissa Evenhuis & Baéz, 2001

[edit] References

Evenhuis, N.L., 2002. Catalog of the Mythicomyiidae of the world.Bishop Museum Bulletin in Entomology 10: 1-85. established classification of the family.
Greathead, D.J. & N.L. Evenhuis, 1997. Family Bombyliidae. In: Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera Volume 2 (L. Papp & B. Darvas, eds.): 487-512. Science Herald, Budapest. provide a key to the Palaearctic genera.
Greathead, D.J. & N.L. Evenhuis, 2001. Annotated keys to the genera of African Bombylioidea (Diptera: Bombyliidae; Mythicomyiidae). African Invertebrates 42: 105-224. good illustrated keys to African genera.
Zaitzev, V.F. 1991. the phylogeny and system of dipterous insects of the superfamily Bombylioidea (Diptera). Entomologicheskoe Obozreniye 70: 716-736. [English translation, 1992, in Entomological Review 71(4): 94-114.]