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Family Fanniidae

Drosophilidae larva? - Fannia unknown fly. Fly on rotten stump Unknown from a benthic sample - Fannia Fly - Fannia Male, Muscidae? - Fannia - male Redwood forest anthomyiid? - female small fly
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Calyptratae)
Superfamily Muscoidea
Family Fanniidae
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
used to be treated as part of Muscidae(1); however, this monophyletic group is sister to the rest of the muscoids plus the Oestroidea(2)
Explanation of Names
Fanniidae Schnabl & Dziedzicki 1911
Numbers
4 genera, with >110 spp. in our area (all but 10 spp. are in Fannia)(1) and ~360 spp. worldwide(3)
Size
medium-sized to small
Identification
body and legs mainly dark; larvae flattened, with striking lateral protuberances


Two species that look alike, ID tips:
In Fanniidae Sc and R1 are widely separated and Sc is straight for most of its length.
In Lonchaeidae Sc is close to R1, the space between them is often darker, and the wing margin bulges out before the tip of Sc.
[John F. Carr]
Range
Mostly Holarctic and temperate Neotropical regions
Habitat
Larvae live as scavengers in various kinds of decaying organic matter.
Remarks
Males congregate in characteristic dancing swarms beneath trees; females are more retiring in habit.
Works Cited
1.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
2.Molecular phylogeny of the Calyptratae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha)...
S.N. Kutty, T. Pape, B.M. Wiegmann, R. Meier. 2010. Systematic Entomology 35: 614–635.
3.Order Diptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification...
Pape T., Blagoderov V., Mostovski M.B. 2011. Zootaxa 3148: 222–229.