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, a ...

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

Description

In general, member of Carnoidea are small flies no more than a few millimetres long. Carnoidea is a poorly defined superfamily. In 1989, ten

synapomorphies 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 ...

were described for the group, but most of these have later been challenged. As of 2006, the following synapomorphies 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 mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

, with larvae developing in

beeswax Bee hive wax complex Beeswax (also known as 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 o ...

while adults attach to bees and feed from bee mouthparts. Canacidae adults are mainly found on seashore habitats such as beaches,

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

tidal flats, wave-swept rocks and

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...

. Little is known about their larvae, but they are believed to mainly feed on

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

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 ...

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 evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

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

predators Predation is a biological interaction in which 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 ...

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 In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

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 f ...

(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