Platypezoidea

Platypezoidea
Pseudacteon sp. (Phoridae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Suborder: Brachycera
Infraorder: Muscomorpha
Section: Aschiza
Superfamily: Platypezoidea
Families

5, see text

Synonyms

Phoroidea

The Platypezoidea are a superfamily of true flies of the section Aschiza. Their closest living relatives are the Syrphoidea, which for example contain the hoverflies. Like these, the adults do not bust open their pupal case with a ptilinum when hatching, and thus the Aschiza do not have the inverted-U-shaped suture above the antennae. They are, however, muscomorphs, and thus have a particular type of pupal case resembling a rounded barrel and called "puparium".

Families

5 families are placed in the Platypezoidea, listed below in taxonomic sequence:

Ironomyiidae, Lonchopteridae and Phoridae are sometimes separated as Phoroidea. The reduced Platypezoidea thus created unites the two families of flat-footed flies.

References

  1. McAlpine, D.K. (2008). "New extant species of ironic flies (Diptera: Ironomyiidae) with notes on ironomyiid morphology and relationships". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (Print) (New South Wales: The Linnean Society of New South Wales) 129: 17–38.