Phoridae

Phoridae
Temporal range: Albian–Recent
Pseudacteon sp., showing the humped back that is characteristic of the family
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Section: Aschiza
Superfamily: Phoroidea
Family: Phoridae
Curtis, 1833
Subfamilies

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 flight. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names, scuttle fly. Another vernacular name, coffin fly, refers to Conicera tibialis.[1] About 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well-known species is cosmopolitan Megaselia scalaris. At 0.4 mm in length, the world's smallest fly is the phorid Euryplatea nanaknihali.[2]

  1. ^ Colyer, C.N. (1954) The 'coffin fly', Conicera tibialis Schmitz (Dipt., Phoridae). Journal of the Society for British Entomology, 4, 203–206.
  2. ^ Brown, B.V. 2012: Small size no protection for acrobat ants: world's smallest fly is a parasitic phorid (Diptera: Phoridae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 105(4): 550–554. doi:10.1603/AN12011