Family SCIOMYZIDAE Fallén, 1820

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Family SCIOMYZIDAE Fallén, 1820

Marsh Flies

Compiler and date details

October 2010 - Scott Ginn, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

Introduction

The fly family Sciomyzidae has a worldwide distribution with some 600 species described in about 60 genera. Sciomyzidae are divided among two subfamilies, "the small subfamily Salticellinae (not in Australia) and the large, cosmopolitan subfamily Sciomyzinae" (Marshall 2012). However, Marshall also states that "[t]he families Huttoninidae, Phaeomyiidae and Helosciomyzidae are sometimes treated as subfamilies of Sciomyzidae, but the relationships between these groups and the groups … treated as Sciomyzidae remain inadequately resolved." Marshall (2012) treats Phaeomyiidae and Helosciomyzidae as separate families.

The Australian sciomyzid fauna is small with only 10 species currently recognised.

Larvae of sciomyzid flies are predators or parasitoids of a variety of molluscs, including clams and particularly snails, both terrestrial and aquatic, and also millipedes. As a result of these associations, study of the biology of this family of Diptera has been substantial, with the lifecycles of more than 200 species recorded. In Hawaii, several species have been used as biological control agents. Pelidnoptera nigripennis (Fabricius) has been introduced in South Australia to combat a pest millipede species that was acccidentally introduced from Portugal. It is the sole representative of the subfamily Phaeomyiinae (treated as family Phaeomyiidae in some publications) in Australia. It is unknown whether the species has become established since its introduction.