The Platypezoidea are a superfamily of true flies of the section Aschiza. Their closest living relatives are the

Syrphoidea The Syrphoidea are a superfamily of flies containing only two families under present classification, one of which ( Syrphidae) has a great number of the most common and familiar flies. One of these familiar flies is ''Eristalis tenax ''Eristali ...

, which, for example, contain the hoverflies. Like these, the adults do not burst open their

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

l cases with a

ptilinum The ptilinum is an eversible pouch on the head, above the base of the antenna in schizophoran flies (a section of muscomorphan and cyclorrhaphan flies). It is used to force off the end of the puparium A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: '' ...

when hatching, thus the Aschiza do not have the inverted-U-shaped suture above the antennae. They are, however, muscomorphs, thus have a particular type of pupal case resembling a rounded barrel and called puparium.

Families

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

Phoridae The Phoridae are a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their escape habit of running rapidly across a surface rather than taking to the wing. This behaviour is a source of one of the ...

- coffin and scuttle flies (includes Sciadoceridae) *

Opetiidae The Opetiidae or flat-footed flies are members of a family of flies (insects of the Order Diptera). The family contains only five extant species in two genera, '' Opetia'' from the Palearctic region and '' Puyehuemyia'' from Chile in South Americ ...

- flat-footed flies *

Ironomyiidae 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 within the single extant genus ''Ironomyia'' endemic to Australia and a number of exti ...

- ironic flies *

Lonchopteridae The Lonchopteridae (spear-winged flies or pointed-wing flies) are a family of small (2–5 mm), slender, yellow to brownish-black Diptera, occurring all over the world. Their common name refers to their pointed wings, which have a distinct v ...

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2241244 Diptera superfamilies