Ephydridae is a family of insects in the order Diptera.
The Lonchaeidae are a family of acalyptrate flies commonly known as lance flies. About 500 described species are placed into 9 genera. These are generally small but robustly built flies with blue-black or metallic bodies. They are found, mainly in wooded areas, throughout the world with the exception of polar regions and New Zealand.
The Chamaemyiidae are a small family of acalyptrate flies with less than 200 species described worldwide. The larvae of these small flies are active and predatory and are often used for biological control of aphids, scale insects, and similar pests. Chamaemyiid fossils are poorly represented in amber deposits, but a few examples are known from the Eocene epoch onwards.
The Curtotonidae or quasimodo flies are a small family of small grey to dark brown humpbacked flies (Diptera) with a worldwide distribution, but with very few species in the Nearctic, Australasian/Oceanian, and Palaearctic regions. Most members of the family are found in tropical to subtropical latitudes in Africa and the Neotropics. Many remain undescribed in collections, since little work on the family has been done since the 1930s.
Canacidae, incorrectly Canaceidae, or beach flies, surf or surge flies, is a family of Diptera. There are 113 species in 12 genera. The family now includes Tethininae as a subfamily.
The Coelopidae or kelp flies are a family of Acalyptratae flies, they are sometimes also called seaweed flies, though both terms are used for a number of seashore Diptera. Fewer than 40 species occur worldwide. The family is found in temperate areas, with species occurring in the southern Afrotropical, Holarctic, and Australasian regions.
The Platystomatidae are a distinctive family of flies (Diptera) in the superfamily Tephritoidea.
Ironomyiidae is a small family of flies in the order Diptera. Historically, they had been included in the family Platypezidae, and includes three extant species and a number of extinct fossil species.
The Helcomyzidae are a small family of flies in the Acalyptratae. The larvae feed on kelp and other organic matter washed up on shorelines. Species diversity is highest in New Zealand and south temperate South America. They are sometimes allied with the families Dryomyzidae or Coelopidae.
Periscelididae is a family of flies.
The Cryptochetidae are a small family of tiny flies. Some twenty to thirty species are known. Generally they are metallic blue black, stoutly built, with the head broad and high and with clear wings. Like other species in the superfamily Lonchaeoidea, the Cryptochetidae have antennae with a cleft in the second segment. Unlike practically all Schizophora however, they lack an arista, or if they do have one, it is too small to distinguish with any confidence. The family name refers to this unusual distinction; "Cryptochetidae" literally means "those with hidden bristles". The adult flies also are unusual among insects in that they have only a single pair of abdominal spiracles — this is not a serious physiological challenge in such small insects.
Heterocheila is a genus of acalyptrate true flies (Diptera). They are placed in their own family, Heterocheilidae, in the superfamily Sciomyzoidea. They are not widely familiar outside entomological circles, but the common name "half-bridge flies" has been associated with them. They are medium-sized flies occurring mainly in temperate regions on seashores of the Northern Hemisphere, where they and their larvae typically feed on stranded kelp in the wrack zone. In this, they resemble kelp flies, which are members of a different family, though the same superfamily.
The Cremifaniidae are a very small family of acalyptrate flies with only 4 described species worldwide. All species are considered rare, and nothing is known of their life history. They were formerly placed in the family Chamaemyiidae.
Ulurumyia macalpinei is a species of fly in the superfamily Oestroidea endemic to Australia. It was first discovered in the 1970s, but was not described until 2017, and in the intervening decades was informally known to entomologists as McAlpine's fly. It is said to be clearly distinct from other oestroid families but its exact position within the superfamily has not been determined with certainty. The genus name Ulurumyia is derived from Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, Australia, and myia, the Greek word for fly; the species name macalpinei commemorates the Australian dipterist David K. McAlpine, the first person to collect specimens of this fly and realize their evolutionary distinctiveness.
Oreoleptidae is a family of flies. The family was established in 2005 on the basis of the type species Oreoleptis torrenticola placed in the monotypic genus Oreoleptis. The only known species was collected from the Rocky Mountains where the larvae grow in torrential streams. Larvae have also been found in groundwater wells. The larvae are similar to those of Athericidae and Tabanidae but with long crocheted false-legs (prolegs) arising from abdominal segments 2-7. The larvae have hollow mandibular hooks.
Heterotropus is a genus of bee flies in the family Bombyliidae. It is the only genus in the subfamily Heterotropinae, which formerly contained at least four genera. There are more than 45 species in the genus Heterotropus.
Coelopellini is a tribe of kelp flies in the family Coelopidae.
Coelopinae is a subfamily of kelp flies in the family Coelopidae.
Margo is the sole genus of flies placed in the family Marginidae and referred to as margin flies. The genus comprises two species, both from Africa: Margo aperta from Zimbabwe and Margo clausa from Madagascar. They are restricted to dense moist forests and are thought to be endangered by habitat destruction. Very little is known of their distribution or biology. The family Marginidae is provisionally placed, on the basis of morphological characters, in the superfamily Opomyzoidea.
Natalimyza is a genus of flies placed in the family Natalimyzidae and known as African grass flies. There are about 30 species in Africa which are found mainly in grasslands where their larvae are thought to feed on decaying plant material. They are small yellow to brown and appear like flies in the families Chyromyidae or Opomyzidae, but differentiated by bristles on the head, having four fronto-orbital bristles.
