DIPTERA > BRACHYCERA | Higher Diptera

MUSCOMORPHA > SCHIZOPHORA > Acalypratae > Tephritoidea > Lonchaeidae (51 species)

(subfamilies: Dasiopinae and Lonchaeinae)

Lonchaeids are small, solidly-built flies with a black or blackish-blue body, which is often metallic or glossy. They are primarily found in woodlands with the larvae of some species living under loose bark of dead or dying trees. It is usually only the females that are seen as the males live high in the canopy.

Additional characteristics are given as small to medium-sized (3-6mm) flies.; head large, hemispherical, concave behind, showing considerable sexual dimorphism with frons narrower in the male; lunula large; arista bare or with shorter to longer pubescence; ocelli present; ocellar bristles present; postvertical bristles weak, diverging; one pair of frontal bristles, situated at the level of the ocellar triangle and curving backward; scattered interfrontal setulae present; vibrissae absent but, in some genera, with a series of vibrissa-like bristles near the vibrissal angle; wings unmarked, vein Sc complete; costa with a subcostal break; crossvein BM-Cu present; cell cup closed; haltere dark brown to black; tibiae without dorsal preapical bristle or present only on tibia of mid legs; abdomen short, wide, dorsoventrally flattened; the female with a lanceolate, incompletely retractable ovipositor.