Carnoidea is a superfamily of

Acalyptratae The Acalyptratae or Acalyptrata are a subsection of the Schizophora, which are a section of the order Diptera, the "true flies". In various contexts the Acalyptratae also are referred to informally as the acalyptrate muscoids, or acalyptrates, ...

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 m ...

Description

In general, carnoids are small flies no more than a few millimetres long. Carnoidea is a poorly defined superfamily. In 1989, ten synapomorphies were described for the group, but most of these have later been challenged. As of 2006, the following synapopmorphies were described: uppermost fronto-orbital bristle(s) of the head is exclinate; phallus of the male is flexible, unsclerotized, simple and elongate; and phallus is microtrichose.

Ecology

Braulidae are associated with

honey bees A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

, with larvae developing in

beeswax Beeswax (''cera alba'') is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive work ...

while adults attach to bees and feed from bee mouthparts. Canacidae adults are mainly found on seashore habitats such as beaches, estuarine tidal flats, wave-swept rocks and

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

. Little is known about their larvae, but they are believed to mainly feed on algae in the intertidal zone. Australimyzidae are also found on seashores, being associated with dead or decaying plant matter. Carnidae are

scavengers Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

found in various kinds of plant matter, animal dung, carrion and vertebrate nests. Milichiidae are also scavengers and most occur in a range of habitats, though some are restricted to ant nests, bee nests or bat dung in caves. Chloropidae are more varied in their larval ecology, including scavengers,

herbivores A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

in plant shoots and stems (these may be largely bacterial feeders), parasites feeding on frog blood, and

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

of insect or spider eggs. Adults of Inbiomyiidae are believed to be microbial grazers, as dissections have found fungal, algal and probably bacterial material in their guts. The larvae are unknown.

Phylogeny

Australimyzidae and Inbiomyiidae are sister groups, meaning they are more closely related to each other than to any other family. Carnoidea may not be a monophyletic group. One molecular analysis found that its constituent families are more closely related to members of other superfamilies, such as Braulidae to

Drosophilidae The Drosophilidae are a diverse, cosmopolitan family of flies, which includes species called fruit flies, although they are more accurately referred to as vinegar or pomace flies. Another distantly related family of flies, Tephritidae, are true ...

(superfamily

Ephydroidea The Ephydroidea are a superfamily of muscomorph flies, with over 6,000 species. Description A characteristic of adult Ephydroidea (shared with their relatives such as Calyptratae) is that the pedicel of the antenna has a dorsoventral seam or ...

References

External links

Carnidae Online
Dedicated website {{Taxonbar, from=Q1617301 Diptera superfamilies