The Bibionomorpha are an infraorder of the suborder Nematocera. One of its constituent families, the Anisopodidae, is the presumed sister taxon to the entire suborder Brachycera. Several of the remaining families in the infraorder are former subfamilies of the Mycetophilidae, which has been recently subdivided. The family Axymyiidae has recently been removed from the Bibionomorpha to its own infraorder Axymyiomorpha.
The Nematocera are a suborder of elongated flies with thin, segmented antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies but species from suborder Brachycera, which includes more commonly known species such as the housefly or the common fruit fly. Families in Nematocera include mosquitoes, crane flies, gnats, black flies, and multiple families commonly known as midges. The Nematocera typically have fairly long, fine, finely-jointed antennae. In many species, such as most mosquitoes, the female antennae are more or less threadlike, but the males have spectacularly plumose antennae.
The Nematoceran family Axymyiidae is the sole member of the infraorder Axymyiomorpha, though it is often included within the infraorder Bibionomorpha in older classifications. It is known from only nine species in four genera, plus eight fossil species.
Chrysopilus is common, worldwide genus of predatory snipe flies. There are approximately 300 species in the genus, including fossil members that are sometimes found in amber.
The minute black scavenger flies or "dung midges", are a family, Scatopsidae, of nematoceran flies. Despite being distributed throughout the world, they form a small family with only around 250 described species in 27 genera, although many await description and doubtless even more await discovery. These are generally small, sometimes minute, dark flies, generally similar to black flies (Simuliidae), but usually lacking the humped thorax characteristic of that family.
Xylomyidae is a family of flies known commonly as the wood soldier flies. They are xylophagous and are associated with dead or dying wood.
Rhagionidae or snipe flies are a small family of flies. They get their name from the similarity of their often prominent proboscis that looks like the beak of a snipe.
Bibionidae is a family of flies (Diptera) containing approximately 650–700 species worldwide. Adults are nectar feeders and emerge in numbers in spring. Because of the likelihood of adults flies being found in copula, they have earned colloquial names such as "love bugs" or "honeymoon flies".
The Perissommatidae are a family of flies (Diptera) that was proposed in 1962 by Donald Colless based on the species Perissomma fusca from Australia. The family now includes five extant species within the single genus Perissomma, four from Australia and one from Chile. The Perissommatidae are unusual as they appear to have four compound eyes. They have a small slender body less than 2 mm in length. Their wings are large in comparison to their bodies and subsequently their flight is weak. Preferring high-altitude forest environments, adults only fly in the winter. The larvae live in decaying leaf litter in wet sclerophyll or cool rain forests. Some species are suspected to be associated with fungi. In the case of Perissomma macalpinei, numbers of adults have been observed congregating in clumps of foliage and rising in short, zigzag flights in the sunlight above the foliage for short periods before descending.
Temnostoma is a genus of hoverflies. The larvae of some species feed on the wood of deciduous trees.
The Cylindrotomidae or long-bodied craneflies are a family of crane flies. More than 65 extant species in 9 genera occur worldwide. There are more than 20 extinct species.
Bolitophila is the sole living genus in the Bolitophilidae, a family of Diptera in the superfamily Sciaroidea, with around 40 Palaearctic and about 20 Nearctic species, and three species from the Oriental region (Taiwan). They are small (6–9 mm).
Xylomya is a fly genus in the family Xylomyidae, the "wood soldier flies".
Xylophagus is a genus of flies in the family Xylophagidae.
Sylvicola is a genus of wood gnats in the family Anisopodidae. There are more than 80 described species in Sylvicola.
Synneuron is a genus of gnats, gall midges, and March flies in the family Canthyloscelidae. There are at least four described species in Synneuron.
Hesperinus is a genus of flies and the sole genus in the relict family Hesperinidae belonging to the nematoceran infraorder Bibionomorpha. There are about 8 known species, nearly all from the Palaearctic region with one each from the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Three fossil species from Eocene Baltic amber have been described. These flies have long 12-segmented antennae, legs and abdomen and males have well-developed wings while females have a short one. Little is known, but most species have been collected near streams in woodlands.
Zhangsolvidae is an extinct family of brachyceran flies known from the Cretaceous period. Members of the family possess a long proboscis, varying in length between 1.3 and 7 mm depending on the species, and were probably nectarivores. A specimen has been found with preserved Bennettitales pollen, suggesting that they acted as pollinators for extinct gymnosperms. They are considered to be members of the Stratiomyomorpha.
Glutops is a genus of flies in the family Pelecorhynchidae.
