13-761: Acroceridae Nemestrinidae † Rhagionemestriidae Nemestrinoidea is a small, monophyletic superfamily of flies, whose relationship to the other Brachycera is uncertain; they are sometimes grouped with the Tabanomorpha rather than the Asilomorpha . They are presently considered to be the sister taxon to the Asiloidea . The group contains two very small extant families, the Acroceridae and Nemestrinidae , both of which occur worldwide but contain only small numbers of rare species. One extinct family, Rhagionemestriidae ,
26-472: A small family of odd-looking flies. They have a hump-backed appearance with a strikingly small head, generally with a long proboscis for accessing nectar. They are rare and not widely known. The most frequently applied common names are small-headed flies or hunch-back flies . Many are bee or wasp mimics . Because they are parasitoids of spiders, they also are sometimes known as spider flies . The Acroceridae vary in size from small to fairly large, about
39-560: A small family in the Brachycera . They are members of the infraorder Muscomorpha , and DNA studies suggest that they are most closely related to the families Nemestrinidae and Bombyliidae . A 2013 analysis of morphological data suggested the Acroceridae were a sister group to the Asiloidea and Eremoneura. The roughly 520 species are placed in 50 genera. In 2019, a revised classification of
52-442: A variety of physical and behavioral changes. As with others in the order Strepsiptera, Stylopidae larvae called triungulins enter their host and develop inside it. Females will remain inside the host. When females are ready to breed, they will push their head and brood canal opening, which is located just behind their head, out between the host insect's sclerites . Females draw males with pheromones who mate with them by means of
65-573: Is a family of twisted-winged insects in the order Strepsiptera . There are about 15 genera and more than 330 described species in Stylopidae. Members of Stylopidae are parasitic insects. Host insects of this family that are afflicted are referred to as being "stylopized". Stylopidae are associated primarily with wasps and bees but are known to also use members of Blattodea , Mantodea , Orthoptera , Hemiptera , Diptera , and other Hymenoptera as hosts. Stylopized hosts often display
78-528: Is also included in Nemestrinoidea. These insects are parasitoids , with Acroceridae attacking spiders , and Nemestrinidae typically attacking Orthoptera . Both families have unusual and distinctive wing venation by which they can be easily recognized, in addition to other features. This article related to members of the fly superfamily Nemestrinoidea is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Acroceridae The Acroceridae are
91-412: Is known, all Acroceridae are parasitoids of spiders. They are most commonly collected when a spider from the field is brought into captivity. As in the related families, Bombyliidae and Nemestrinidae, members of the family undergo hypermetamorphosis : the adults do not seek out their hosts; instead, the first-instar larva is a planidium . Females lay large number of eggs, up to 5,000, and after hatching,
104-467: The body wall, usually at an articulation membrane. Often, it lodges near a book lung , where it may remain for years before completing its development. Mature larvae pupate outside the host. The adults of most species, like various members of the Tabanidae , Nemestrinidae, and Bombyliidae, are nectar feeders with exceptionally long probosces, sometimes longer than the entire body length of the insect. Unlike
117-645: The family based on phylogenetic studies was published, listing five extant subfamilies and one extinct subfamily containing Archocyrtus from the Late Jurassic Karabastau Formation of Kazakhstan. Obsolete synonyms for Acroceridae include Cyrtidae, Oncodidae, and Ogcodidae. Acroceridae are cosmopolitan in distribution, but nowhere abundant. They appear episodically and in most places are rarely observed; of more than 500 species described, most are known from fewer than 10 specimens. They occur most commonly in semiarid tropical locations. As far as
130-436: The heads seemingly composed mainly of the large faceted eyes. This is in contrast to many insects in which the males have larger (even holoptic) eyes, whereas the females have normal eyes. The squamae are disproportionately large, completely covering the halteres , and the abdomen has an inflated appearance, often practically globular. The tarsi are equipped with large claws with three pulvilli below them. The Acroceridae are
143-535: The other families, however, when not deploying the proboscis for feeding, the Acroceridae carry it lengthwise medially beneath the body, instead of projecting forward. As a result, the proboscis might escape casual notice, though careful inspection may reveal it projecting slightly behind the abdomen. Flies are usually found in small numbers on plants in July and August in the Palearctic realm . Stylopidae Stylopidae
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#1732898673719156-415: The planidia seek out spiders. They do not resemble the triungulin of most beetles with a hypermetamorphosis, but do resemble the triungulin of Stylops . The larva can move with a looping movement like a leech or inchworm , and can leap several millimetres into the air. When a spider contacts an acrocerid planidium, the planidium grabs hold, crawls up the spider's legs to its body, and forces its way through
169-407: The size of large bees, with a wingspan over 25 mm in some species. As a rule, both sexes have tiny heads and a characteristic hump-backed appearance because of the large, rounded thorax. In appearance, they are compact flies without major bristles, but many species have a bee-like hairiness on their bodies, and some are bee or wasp mimics . In most species, the eyes are holoptic in both sexes,
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