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Family Fanniidae

Fannia pellucida - female Gray thorax, yellow abdomen - Fannia What is it? 243318 Agromyzid - Fannia Fly - Fannia Fly on leaf in meadow - Fannia Macro shots of larva - Fannia Fanniidae? - Fannia
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
Range
Mostly Holarctic and temperate Neotropical
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.

In North America (north of Mexico) the genera other than Fannia have dichoptic males, yellow femora, and a brown or pollinose thorax. A Fanniidae with eyes nearly touching, black femora, or a shining black thorax belongs to genus Fannia. This does not work in reverse. Some species of Fannia have dichoptic males, for example.
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.