| Dagger flies and balloon flies Temporal range: Cretaceous - Recent
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| Male Empis livida | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Suborder: | Brachycera |
| Infraorder: | Asilomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Empidoidea |
| Family: | Empididae Latreille, 1804 |
| Subfamilies | |
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Brachystomatinae | |
Empididae is a family of flies with over 3,000 described species occurring worldwide in all the biogeographic realms but the majority are found in the Holarctic. They are mainly predatory flies like most of their relatives in the Empidoidea, and exhibit a wide range of forms but are generally small to medium-sized, non-metallic and rather bristly.
Common names for members of this family are dagger flies (referring to the sharp piercing mouthparts of some species) and balloon flies. The term "dance flies" is sometimes used for this family too,[1] but the dance flies proper, formerly included herein, are now considered a separate family Hybotidae.
- ^ Sjöberg, Fredrik (2014). The Fly Trap. Particular Books. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-846-14776-0.