Family CHAMAEMYIIDAE Hendel, 1910

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Introduction

Chamaemyiidae is a fly family with worldwide distribution, predominantly in the Nearctic and Palaearctic Regions. It is well represented in Australia by 38 species from 8 genera. There are limited published works on the family Chamaemyiidae for the Australian fauna. The major publications are a key to world genera (McAlpine, 1960) and a review of the Australian chamaemyiid fauna by Tanasijtshuk (1996), in which most of the currently known species are newly described or redescribed. The body colour of most species is ash-grey.

Biology
Current knowledge of the biology of the immature stages of Australian species is poor, and is large part indirect, based on observations of northern hemisphere species. Some species are known to be generalist feeders, but mostly this family is associated with being larval predators, particularly horticultural pests of the order Hemiptera, including aphids, psyllids and coccoids such as scale insects and mealybugs. Consequently, they have a potential role as agents in biological pest control.

Checklist of species following Evenhuis, N.L. Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions (online version, accessed 2010), AFD file compiled by S. Ginn

General References

Colless, D.H. & McAlpine, D.K. 1991. Diptera (Flies). pp. 717-786 in CSIRO (ed.). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Melbourne : Melbourne University Press Vol. 2 pp. 543-1137.

Evenhuis, N.L 2007. Family Chamaemyiidae. In Evenhuis, N.L.(ed.) Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. (online version). http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/aocat/chamae.html

Gaimari, S.D. & Tanasijtshuk, V.N. 2001. A new leucopine genus (Diptera: Chamaemyiidae) with species attacking Ceroplastes wax scales (Hemiptera: Coccidae) in South America. Systematic Entomology 26(3): 311-328

Hamilton, J. et al. 2006. On the Fly, The interactive atlas and key to Australian fly families. [CD-Rom] CBIT & Australian Biological Resources Study, Brisbane & Canberra.

McAlpine, J.F. 1960. A new species of Leucopis (Leucopella) from Chile and a key to world genera and subgenera of Chamaemyiidae (Diptera). The Canadian Entomologist 92: 51-58 [Date published 29 January]

Tanasijtshuk, V.N. 1996. Silver-flies (Diptera, Chamaemyiidae) of Australia. An International Journal of Dipterological Research 7(1): 1-62 [Date published 3 January]

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