Family MICROPEZIDAE Blanchard, 1840

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Family MICROPEZIDAE Blanchard, 1840

Stilt Flies

Compiler and date details

January 2011 - Scott Ginn, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

2007 - R. Johnson, data taken from Evenhuis, N.L. Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions (accessed 2007)

Introduction

Micropezidae is a medium-sized family of flies, known from about 520 species worldwide. The Australian fauna is relatively small, comprising 30 described species in six genera. Micropezid flies are distinctive with long slender bodies and long legs. Hennig (1935-1936) published a world revision of the Tylidae (Micropezidae). Evenhuis (1989) catalogued the known Australian taxa. The most current treatments of the Australian fauna for this family are by McAlpine — subfamily classification (1975), and a review of the family (1998) that is followed here.

Ecology
Adults are known to be predators of smaller insects in Europe, and are attracted to decaying matter such as fruit and excrement. Virtually nothing is known about larval micropezids. Typical habitats include Eucalypt tree trunks, grasses and shrubs. Some species appear to be restricted to rainforest habitat (e.g. species in subgenus Metopochetus). Badisis and Calycopteryx species are apterous, having lost both wings and halteres. Larvae of Calycopteryx mosleyi have been associated with Kerguélen cabbage on Kerguélen and Heard Island, and the larvae of Badisis ambulans were found in the pitcher of the Albany Pitcher Plant Cepahlotus follicularis by Yeates (1992).