''Avenaphora'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

in the family

Dolichopodidae Dolichopodidae, the long-legged flies, are a large, cosmopolitan family of true flies with more than 7,000 described species in about 230 genera. The genus ''Dolichopus'' is the most speciose, with some 600 species. Dolichopodidae generally are ...

. It is known from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. (PDF given is the manuscript version) ''Avenaphora'' is a Dolichopodidae ''sensu lato'' of uncertain affinities. It was originally placed in the subfamily

Microphorinae Microphorinae is a subfamily of flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It is part of an expanded concept of the family, Dolichopodidae ''sensu lato'', though it was previously considered a family of its own. Genera The subfamily includes seven gene ...

by Grimaldi and Cumming in 1999, but the authors suggested that it could actually have a closer affinity with

Parathalassiinae Parathalassiinae is a subfamily of flies in the family Dolichopodidae. It is part of an extended concept of the family, Dolichopodidae ''sensu lato'', and forms a monophyletic group with Dolichopodidae ''sensu stricto''. It was once placed provis ...

or Dolichopodidae ''sensu stricto''. A later article published in 2017 suggested that ''Avenaphora'' actually has more similarities to the Parathalassiinae than the Microphorinae or Dolichopodidae ''s.str.'', but the authors did not place the genus in the Parathalassiinae as it does not have clear

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

with them.

Species

The genus contains two species: * †''Avenaphora gallica'' Nel, Garrouste & Daugeron, 2017 – Piolenc amber, France, Early

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. The ...

* †''Avenaphora hispida'' Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999 –

Lebanese amber Lebanese amber is fossilized resin found in Lebanon and southwest Syria. It dates back approximately 130-125 million years to the Barremian of the Early Cretaceous. It formed on what was then the northern coast of Gondwana, believed to be a tropica ...

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is preceded ...

References

† † Prehistoric Diptera genera Cretaceous insects {{cretaceous-insect-stub