deciphering their diversity and evolutionary history

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Asiloid Flies
deciphering their diversity and evolutionary history

Sample of Asiloid Flies

Taxa overview

The Apioceridae comprises the single genus Apiocera Westwood, 1835 with 4 subgenera and 143 species from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA.

The Asilidae comprises 541 genera in 14 subfamily taxa and more than 7,500 species world-wide.

The Mydidae comprises 66 genera in 11 subfamily taxa and 473 species world-wide, which are primarily found in desert or semi-desert environments although quite a few species do also occur in rain-forests. The Afrotropical Region is with 205 species the most speciose region and particularly rich is southern Africa (183 species occur in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, & Zimbabwe). Australia has 43 species while the Nearctic Region harbours 92 species. The Neotropical Region, which shares a few species with North America, is inhabited by 81 Mydidae species. The Palaearctic Region hosts 51 species (a few being shared with the Afrotropical Region) and very few, namely only 13 species, are known from the Oriental Region. Two species are currently assigned as incertae sedis including the oldest fossil Cretomydas santanensis Willkommen & Grimaldi, 2007 described from the Santana Formation of north-eastern Brazil.

Table summarizing geographical distribution of genera of Apioceridae and subfamily taxa of Mydidae (Asilidae coming soon).
Taxon Genera Species Subspecies Afr Aus Nea Neo Ori Pal
Apioceridae: Apiocera (Anypenus) 4 X
Apioceridae: Apiocera (Apiocera) 73 1 X
Apioceridae: Apiocera (Pyrocera) 64 5 X X
Apioceridae: Apiocera (Ripidosyrma) 3 X
sum of Apioceridae taxa 1 143 6 3 67 62* 7*
––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––– ––– ––– ––– ––– ––– ––– ––– –––
Mydidae: Anomalomydinae 1 2 X
Mydidae: Apiophorinae 5 29 X X
Mydidae: Cacatuopyginae 2 6 X
Mydidae: Diochlistinae 2 20 X X
Mydidae: Ectyphinae 4 10 X X
Mydidae: Leptomydinae 6 54 X X X X X
Mydidae: Megascelinae 3 14 X X X
Mydidae: Mydinae 12 84 X X
Mydidae: Rhaphiomidinae 1 23 5 X
Mydidae: Rhopaliinae 4 22 X X X
Mydidae: Syllegomydinae 25 207 1 X X
Mydidae: unplaced species 1 2 X X
sum of Mydidae taxa 66 473 6 205* 43 92* 81* 13 51*

Afr = Afrotropical; Aus = Australasian/Oceanian; Nea = Nearctic; Neo = Neotropical; Ori = Oriental; Pal = Palaearctic zoogeographical Region. * = some species are distributed in 2 different zoogeographical regions.