Anisopodidae

Taxobox
name = Wood gnats

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image_caption = "Sylvicola fenestralis"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Hexapoda
classis = Insecta
subclassis = Pterygota
infraclassis = Neoptera
superordo = Endopterygota|
ordo = Diptera
subordo = Nematocera
infraordo = Psychodomorpha
superfamilia = Anisopodoidea
familia = Anisopodidae
synonyms = *Phryneidae
*Rhyphidae
*Sylvicolidae
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision =
*"Anisopus"
*"Carreraia"
*"Cretoseguya"(Extinct)
*"Eoanisopodites"(Extinct)
*"Hongocaloneura"(Extinct)
*"Huaxiarhyphus"
*"Lobogaster"
*"Megarhyphus"
*"Mesobrachyopteryx"(Extinct)
*"Mesorhyphus"
*"Mesochria"
*"Mycetobia"
*"Olbiogaster"
*"Pachyrhyphus"
*"Sinorhyphus"
*"Sylvicola"
*"Thiras"
*"Valeseguya"

Anisopodidae is a small cosmopolitan family of gnat-like flies known as Wood gnats or Window-gnats with 154 described extant species in 15 genera, and several described fossil taxa. Some species are saprophagous or fungivorous. They are mostly small to medium-sized flies, except the genera "Olbiogaster" and "Lobogaster", which are large with bizarrely spatulate abdomens. Their phylogenetic placement is controversial. They have been proposed to be the sister group to the higher flies, the Brachycera (Oosterbroek and Courtney 1995). Some authors (Amorim and Grimaldi 2006) consider this group to be four distinct families- Anisopodidae, Mycetobiidae, Olbiogastridae, and Valeseguyidae.

External links

* [http://www.anisopodidae.org Anisopodidae Taxonomy Site]
* [http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera//biosys.htm BioSystematic Database of World Diptera]

References

Amorim, D. D. S. and D. A. Grimaldi. (2006). Valeseguyidae, a new family of Diptera in the Scatopsoidea, with a new genus in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar. Systematic Entomology 31 (3), 508–516.

Oosterbroek, P. and G. Courtney. 1995. Phylogeny of the nematocerous families of Diptera (Insecta). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 115:267-311.