__NOTOC__ The minute black scavenger flies or "dung midges", are a family, Scatopsidae, of

nematocera The Nematocera (the name means "thread-horns") are a suborder of elongated fly, flies with thin, segmented antenna (biology), antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies but species from suborder Brachyce ...

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

. 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 (from 0.6 to 5 mm), generally similar to

black flies A black fly or blackfly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 speci ...

(Simuliidae), but usually lacking the humped

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

characteristic of that family. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

e of most species are unknown, but the few that have been studied have a rather flattened shape and are

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

and

saprophagous Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...

. Scatopsids are a well established group and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are known from

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...

deposits dating back to the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

period. '' Scatopse notata'' (Linnaeus, 1758) is a cosmopolitan species. Its larval stages are found in decaying plant and animal material.

Genera

* '' Anapausis'' Enderlein, 1912 * '' Apiloscatopse'' Cook, 1874 * '' Arthria'' Kirby, 1837 * '' Aspistes'' Meigen, 1818 * '' Austroclemina'' * '' Borneoscatopse'' * '' Brahemyia'' Amorim, 2007 * '' Coboldia'' Melander, 1916 (sometimes erroneously as ''Colboldia'') * '' Colobostema'' Enderlein, 1926 * '' Cooka'' Amorin, 2007 * '' Diamphidicus'' Cook, 1971 * '' Efcookella'' * '' Ectaetia'' Enderlein, 1912 * '' Ferneiella'' Cook, 1974 * '' Hawomersleya'' Cook, 1971 * '' Holoplagia'' Enderlein, 1912 * † '' Mesoscatopse'' * '' Neorhegmoclemina'' * '' Parascatopse'' Cook, 1955 * '' Parmaferia'' Cook, 1977 * † '' Procolobostema'' * † '' Protoscatopse'' * '' Psectrosciara'' Kieffer, 1911 * '' Quateiella'' Cook, 1975 * '' Reichertella'' Enderlein, 1912 * '' Rhegmoclema'' Enderlein, 1912 * '' Rhegmoclemina'' Enderlein, 1936 * '' Rhexoza'' Enderlein, 1936 * '' Scatopse'' Geoffroy, 1762 (sometimes erroneously as ''Scatops'' or ''Scathops'') * '' Swammerdamella'' Enderlein, 1912 * '' Thripomorpha'' Enderlein, 1905

Name

The family name Scatopsidae literally translates to "looks like feces" (from Greek ''skat'' "dung" and ''opsi'' "appearance"). It is derived from the genus ''Scatopse'', which has been frequently misspelled as ''Scatops''.

References

- Family descriptions * Australasian/Oceanian Diptera Catalog
Google cache

External links

* Scatopsidae in Italian
Scatopsidae">BioLib: Incomplete taxonomic tree of :it:Scatopsidae, Scatopsidae

List of nearctic Scatopsidae species

Picture of ''Rhegmoclema hubachecki''

Diptera.info
Images
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images {{Taxonbar, from=Q1265805 Scatopsidae, Nematocera families Articles containing video clips

Genera

Name

See also

References

Further reading

Species descriptions

Fossil record

External links