Diastatidae

Diastata fuscula, copyright Dick Belgers.

Belongs within: Ephydroidea.

The Diastatidae are a group of small, drosophilid-like flies found primarily among lush, low vegetation, often in relatively damp locations. The classification of this group has historically been disputed with Diastata alternatively placed within the Ephydridae, in which case the remaining genera are treated as the Campichoetidae (Mathis 2010).

Characters (from Mathis 2010): Adults small, greyish-brown, body length 2.5–4 mm; usually with patterned wings and weakly spinose costa. Postocellar setae convergent; both inner and outer verticals present; ocellar and vibrissal setae well developed; two well-developed fronto-orbital setae present, proclinate seta laterad of reclinate seta present. Antenna decumbent; arista elongate, macropubescent or short plumose. Anepisternum setose or bare; katepisternum bearing twelve setae, posterior seta stronger. C extending to M; C with either subcostal break only or both humeral and subcostal breaks; Sc incomplete, not reaching C, often fusing with R₁ distally; R₁ bare; both CuA₂ and A₁ present; cell cup closed, crossvein bm-cu present. Legs moderatly elongate, slender. Abdominal segments 1–5 unmodified; male with segments 6–8 reduced, although tergite 7 well developed, sternite 7 absent; abdominal spiracles (6 or 7) in membrane.

<==Diastatidae [Campichoetidae] M10
    |--Euthychaeta M10
    |--Pareuthychaeta M10
    |    |--P. electrica M87
    |    `--P. minuta M87
    |--Campichoeta M10
    |    |--C. basalis [incl. Thryptocheta tristis] M10
    |    |--C. latigena M10
    |    `--C. punctum M87
    `--Diastata M10
         |--D. argentina M10
         |--D. costaricensis M10
         |--D. dimidiata M10
         |--D. fuscula WT11
         `--D. vagans M10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[M10] Mathis, W. N. 2010. Diastatidae (diastatid flies). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 2 pp. 1207–1210. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[M87] McAlpine, J. F. 1987. Diastatidae. In: McAlpine, J. F. (ed.) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 2 pp. 1019–1022. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.

[WT11] Wiegmann, B. M., M. D. Trautwein, I. S. Winkler, N. B. Barr, J.-W. Kim, C. Lambkin, M. A. Bertone, B. K. Cassel, K. M. Bayless, A. M. Heimberg, B. M. Wheeler, K. J. Peterson, T. Pape, B. J. Sinclair, J. H. Skevington, V. Blagoderov, J. Caravas, S. N. Kutty, U. Schmidt-Ott, G. E. Kampmeier, F. C. Thompson, D. A. Grimaldi, A. T. Beckenbach, G. W. Courtney, M. Friedrich, R. Meier & D. K. Yeates. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108 (14): 5690–5695.

Last updated: 11 July 2021.