Ragadidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

true 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

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 ...

Empidoidea The Empidoidea are a large monophyletic superfamily of true flies, the sister taxon to the Muscomorpha (Cyclorrhapha). These two groups are sometimes united in the unranked taxon Eremoneura. There are some 10,000 known species within Empidoidea, ...

. It was formerly considered a lower taxon, but was published as a new subfamily within Empididae in 2016.Sinclair (2016) Since then, it has been classified as the sister group to Empididae, and has been elevated to family level based on the genetic differences which separate it from Empididae.Wahlberg & Johanson (2018)

Description

Ragadidae are similar to

Empididae __NOTOC__ Empididae is a family of flies with over 3,000 described species occurring worldwide in all the biogeographic realms but the majority are found in the Holarctic. They are mainly predatory flies like most of their relatives in the Empido ...

and

Atelestidae Atelestidae is a family of flies in the superfamily Empidoidea. The four genera were placed in a separate family in 1983; they were formerly either in Platypezidae (which are not even particularly closely related) or considered ''incertae sedis'' ...

in the sense that their genitalia have symmetrical and straight terminalia. In their wings, the point of origin of the R_s vein is located at a distance from the humeral crossvein (h) as long as, or longer than, h. There is also a circumambient costa in the wing, which distinguishes Ragadidae from Atelestidae. Furthermore, the

prosternum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

being separated from the proepisternum sets Ragadidae aside from Empididae—this is true for all except one genera (''Hydropeza'' ''spp''.), which can instead be characterized through its recurved labrum. In Empididae, this labrum is straight.

Systematics

Ragadidae consists of two subfamilies, Iteaphilinae and Ragadinae, in which 7 genera are included in total: '' Dipsomyia'', '' Hormopeza'', '' Hydropeza'', ''

Ragas A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as a ...

'', '' Zanclotus'', '' Anthepiscopus'' and '' Iteaphila''. Based on the most recent phylogenetic studies, the relationship between Ragadidae and other members of Empidoidea is as follows. The placement of Ragadidae is emphasized in bold formatting.

Footnotes

References

* (2016): Revision of the Australian species of ''Hydropeza'' Sinclair (Diptera: Empididae: Ragadinae subfam. nov.). ''

Records of the Australian Museum A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

'' 68: 1–22. * (2018): Molecular phylogenetics reveals novel relationships within Empidoidea (Diptera). ''

Systematic Entomology ''Systematic Entomology'' is a scientific journal covering the field of systematic entomology, published by the Royal Entomological Society of London. Having begun in 1932 as '' Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London, Series B ...

'' 43(4): 619–636.

External links

Empidoidea Diptera of South America Brachycera families {{Empidoidea-stub