Subfamily Sciadocerinae

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

The world sciadocerine fauna is small. It is known from a handful of fossil species embedded in amber from China and Canada. There is one species known from the Neotropical Region — Archiphora patagonica Schmitz, 1929, which is found in Chile. One extant species Sciadocera rufomaculata White is recorded for the Australian fauna. There have been several studies on the biology of this species and the former family Sciadoceridae by Tonnoir (1926), Fuller (1934), Hennig (1964), and McAlpine & Martin (1966).

The status of family Sciadoceridae has been in question for some time. Disney (2001) supported Tonnoir's (1926) decision to place Sciadocera rufomaculata in family Phoridae, thus rejecting Schmitz' (1929) assignment of this species to family Sciadoceridae. Brown's (2007) paper further confirms the current status of the subfamily Sciadocerinae.

The position of S. rufomaculata in Sciadocerinae is followed here.

General References

Brown, B.V. 2007. A further new genus of primitive phorid fly (Diptera: Phoridae) from Baltic amber and its phylogenetic implications. Contributions in Science. Los Angeles 513: 1-14 [Date published 25 May]

Disney, R.H.L. 2001. Sciadoceridae (Diptera) reconsidered. Fragmenta Faunistica (Warsaw) 44(2): 309-317

Evenhuis, N.L. 1989. Family Sciadoceridae. p. 432 in Evenhuis, N.L. (ed.). Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. Honolulu and Leiden : Bishop Museum Press and E.J. Brill 1155 pp.

Fuller, M.E. 1934. The early stages of Sciadocera rufomaculata White (Dipt. Phoridae). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 59: 9-15 [Date published 15 May]

Hennig, W. 1964. Die Dipteren-Familie Sciadoceridae in Baltischen Bernstein (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha Aschiza). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde 127: 10 p. [Date published 5 March]

McAlpine, J.F. & Martin, J.E.H. 1966. Systematics of Sciadoceridae and relatives with descriptions of two new genera and species from Canadian amber and erection of family Ironomyiidae (Diptera: Phoroidea). The Canadian Entomologist 98: 527-544

Tonnoir, A.L. 1926. A new and primitive sub-family of the Phoridae (Dipt.). Records of the Canterbury Museum 3: 31-38 [Date published 22 October]

History of changes