Apsilocephalidae
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Apsilocephalidae
Overview
Apsilocephalidae is a family of flies within the superfamily Asiloidea. The group includes both extant and extinct representatives. Extant genera include Apsilocephala (found in North America), Clesthentia and Clesthentiella (found in Tasmania), and Kaurimyia (found in New Zealand).[2]
Visual Description
Based on observations of specimens in the TreeOfLife-200M dataset, members of this family exhibit a distinct body form typical of the group.[1] Morphological characteristics include a specific body shape, wing venation featuring a closed m3 cell and a long cup cell, and a horizontal bm-cua1 cross vein. Additionally, the hind legs are notably longer and thicker than the other pairs.[2]
Fossil Record
The fossil record of Apsilocephalidae is well-represented in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, with several described genera including Burmapsilocephala, Kumaromyia, Myanmarpsilocephala, Irwinimyia, and Cascomixticus. The genus Cascomixticus is particularly noted for its elongate, porrect proboscis, which is longer than the head, as well as a long tubular hypopharynx and a sharply pointed labrum. These features suggest specialized feeding adaptations, potentially for imbibing nectar or plant exudates.[2]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Apsilocephalidae constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- 1 2 3 George O. Poinar; Fernando E. Vega. A new genus of Apsilocephalidae (Diptera) in Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Biosis Biological Systems. 2021. https://doi.org/10.37819/biosis.002.01.0091.