Overview
Muscoidea is a superfamily of flies in the subsection Calyptratae.
Taxonomy
The Superfamily Muscoidea is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Family (6): Anthomyiidae · Fanniidae · Glossinidae · Mormotomyiidae · Muscidae · Scathophagidae
Families
Anthomyiidae
Anthomyiidae is a large and diverse family of Muscoidea flies. Most look rather like small houseflies, but are commonly drab grey. The genus Anthomyia, in contrast, are generally conspicuously-patterned in black-and-white or black-and-silvery-grey. Most are difficult to identify, apart from a few groups such as the kelp flies that are conspicuous on beaches. [more]
Fanniidae
The Fanniidae are a small (285 species in 4 genera) group of true flies largely confined to the Holarctic and temperate Neotropical regions. [more]
Glossinidae
Tsetse (, US /'tsi?tsi/, or UK /'ts?tsi/), sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which cause human sleeping sickness and animal trypanosomiasis, also known as nagana. Tsetse include all the species in the genus Glossina, which are generally placed in their own family, Glossinidae. [more]
Mormotomyiidae
The family Mormotomyiidae (Diptera: Ephydroidea) contains only one known species, Mormotomyia hirsuta, commonly known as the Frightful Hairy Fly, which is found in Kenya. The fly was first described by English entomologist Ernest Edward Austen, and specimens have been collected from one location on a mountain in the (Okazzi Hills), in a cleft where a bat roost is located; this may possibly be the most restricted geographic distribution for any fly family. The larvae have been collected from bat guano. Adult flies are believed to feed on bodily secretions of bats. The fly measures about 1 cm long, with hairy legs, and, due to its non-functional wings and tiny eyes, looks more like a spider than a fly. Specimens have been collected only three times, in 1933, 1948, and 2010. [more]
Muscidae
Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea. The apical segment of the antennae of Muscidae are plumose, and the basal portion is smooth. [more]
Scathophagidae
The Scathophagidae is a small family of Muscoidea which are often known as "Dung-flies" although this name is not appropriate except for a few species of the genus Scathophaga which do indeed pass their larval stages in animal dung. The name probably derives from the "Common Yellow Dung-fly", S. stercoraria, which is one of the most abundant and ubiquitous flies in many parts of the northern hemisphere. [more]
At least 1,554 species and subspecies belong to the Family Scathophagidae.
More info about the Family Scathophagidae may be found here.
Sources
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