}
Archisargoidea is an extinct
superfamily
SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...
of
brachyceran flies known from the late
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
(
Callovian
In the geologic timescale, the Callovian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic, lasting between 166.1 ± 4.0 Ma (million years ago) and 163.5 ± 4.0 Ma. It is the last stage of the Middle Jurassic, following the Bathonian and preceding the ...
) to early
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
(
Turonian
The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded by t ...
). Most flies in the superfamily have large eyes and an elongated abdomen, preserved females have a sharp, piercing
oviscapt used for injecting eggs into host matter. Their relationships with other members of Brachycera is controversial, they are usually considered close relatives of either
Stratiomyomorpha or
Muscomorpha
The Brachyceran infraorder Muscomorpha is a large and diverse group of flies, containing the bulk of the Brachycera, and, most of the known flies. It includes a number of the most familiar flies, such as the housefly, the fruit fly, and the blo ...
.
Internal relationships between the families are uncertain and the topology of the only cladistic analysis of the family was weakly supported, finding that
Archisargidae was
paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
with respect to
Eremochaetidae
Eremochaetidae is an extinct family of brachyceran flies known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of Asia. It is part of the extinct superfamily Archisargoidea. The morphology of the ovipositor of the only 3 dimensionally preserved genus '' ...
and miniaturized
Tethepomyiidae. The sharp piercing oviscaps possessed by the group had alternatively been suggested to represent evidence of being
parasitoids
In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasi ...
, injecting their eggs into hosts similar to
parasitic wasps
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causin ...
, or to inject eggs into plant material like rotting wood or fruit, similar to members of
Tephritoidea
The Tephritoidea are a superfamily of flies. It has over 7,800 species, the majority of them in family Tephritidae.
The following families are included:
* Ctenostylidae
* Eurygnathomyiidae
* Lonchaeidae - lance flies
* Pallopteridae — flutter ...
.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q33187923
Prehistoric Diptera
Insect superfamilies
Brachycera