Sciaridae, Billberg, 1820

Barahona-Segovia, Rodrigo M., Madriz, Isaí, González, Christian R. & Amorim, Dalton De Souza, 2024, An update on the knowledge and general understanding of the Chilean Diptera diversity, Zootaxa 5518 (1), pp. 1-87 : 14-16

Sciaridae

The family comprises 2,720 extant species in 83 genera and 45 subgenera ( Menzel & Smith 2017). The family was not treated in CDASUS. For Chile only 10 species are recognized belonging to four genera ( Amorim 1992). There are no recent taxonomic studies on the family. Many more species can be expected to occur in Chile.

6. Suborder Brachycera

Brachycerans are characterized by the reduction or fusion of antennal segments to eight or fewer in number and by modifications to the larval head capsule. They play many roles in the food web, being key pieces, not only for invertebrate communities but also for vertebrates and ecosystems. The larvae colonize different aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, such as decaying wood, leaf litter, dung, carrion, rivers, swamps, and caves. The classification of Brachycera has undergone a number of changes following successive proposals of phylogeny of the group, which remains unresolved. Our classification for the lower Brachycera follows Wiegmann & Yeates (2017). For Chile, this suborder is represented by 2,329 species grouped into 75 families ( Tables 2–5). The number of genera and species to date, increased by 48.61% (n = 229) and 49.77% (n = 774), respectively in comparison to the numbers outlined in CDASUS (n = 471 genera and n = 1,555 species).

Xylophagidaea 3 16 1 1 –33.33 –93.75 Athericidaeb - - 1 16 - - Austroleptidae - - 1 5 - - Pelecorhynchidae 1 7 2 9 +100 +28.57 Tabanidae 17 74 25 116 +47.05 +56.75 Rhagionidae 3 20 3 18 - –10 Stratiomyidae 22 30 24 73 +9.09 +143.33 Acroceridae - - 10 38 - - Nemestrinidae 4 41 4 39 - –4.87 Bombyliidae 24 151 34 142 +41.66 –5.96 Mythicomyiidaec - - 3 11 - - Apioceridaed 2 9 1 4 –50 –55.55 Asilidae 40 61 44 136 +10 +122.95 Evocoidae - - 1 1 - - Mydidae 4 16 5 18 +25 +12.5 Scenopinidae 1 1 1 1 - - Therevidae - - 13 39 - - Atelestidae - - 1 2 - - Brachystomatidaee - - 5 37 - - Empididae 33 221 25 170 –24.24 –23.07 Ragadidae - - 2 2 - - Dolichopodidae 16 88 23 118 +43.75 +34.09 Hybotidaef - - 10 27 - - Homalonecmidaeg - - 1 2 - - Leptogastridaeh 1 1 - - - -

Total 171 736 240 1.025 +40.35 +39.26 aJames (1975) included the genera Atherimorpha White (now in Rhagionidae ) and Austroleptis Hardy (now in Austroleptidae ); bJames (1968) included in Rhagionidae . Erected as a family status by Stuckenberg (1973); cPainter et al. (1978) included as a subfamily of Bombyliidae ; dGenus Megascelus Philippi was transferred to Mydidae ( Yeates & Irwin 1996) ; eSeveral genera included in Empididae ( Smith 1967) and elevated to family status by Sinclair & Cumming (2006); fAs a subfamily of Empididae in Smith (1967); gGenus Homalocnemis Philippi included in Hybotinae ( Empididae ) ( Smith 1967) and elevated to family status by Amorim (2009b); hNow under Asilidae .

A. Section Homeodactyla

According to Shin et al. (2018), this clade is supported by “Brachyceran flies with pulvilliform empodium, a character state in which the medial lobe on the pretarsus is pad-like.”

1. Infraorder Xylophagomorpha

Based on an analysis of mitochondrial DNA, Ding et al. (2019) recovered the monophyly of Xylophagidae , suggesting that the Xylophagomorpha is sister to Stratiomyomorpha .