Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Family Scatopsidae - Minute Black Scavenger Flies

Unknown Insect Scatopsidae - Holoplagia guamensis Scatopsinae? Scatopse notata Scatopsidae. Maybe Coboldia fuscipes? - Coboldia fuscipes - male - female March fly ? - Psectrosciara Scatopsidae, Minute Black Scavenger Fly Scatopse alpestris
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon ("Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera))
Infraorder Bibionomorpha (Gnats, Gall Midges, and March Flies)
Family Scatopsidae (Minute Black Scavenger Flies)
Explanation of Names
Scatopsidae Newman 1834
Numbers
72 spp. in 16 genera in our area(1), >400 spp. in 34 genera worldwide(2)

Subfamilies & Genera: (3)(4)(5)(6)

Aspistinae
Aspistes - 4 spp
Arthria - 3 spp

Ectaetiinae
Ectaetia - 2 or 3 spp

Psectrosciarinae
Anapausis - 3 spp
Psectrosciara - 11 spp

Scatopsinae
Abrhexosa - 3 spp
Akorhexoza - 1 sp, more in Mexico
Apiloscatopse - 3 spp
Aztecatopse - 1 sp (CA), more in central Mexico
Coboldia - 1 sp
Colobostema - 4 spp
Cooka - 6 spp
Holoplagia - 1 sp (CA, FL, Hawaii)
Parascatopse - 3 spp
Quateiella - 2 spp
Reichertella - 3 spp
Rhegmoclema - 6 spp
Rhegmoclemina - 5 spp
Rhexoza - ?? spp
Scatopse - 3 spp
Swammerdamella - 10 spp
Size
0.6-5 mm
Identification
Veins along wing margin strong, while remaining veins are generally weak. Short antennae. Fork of Cu at wing base; similar Bibionomorpha have fork far more distal.
key to world genera in(7)
Food
Adults sometimes on flowers
Life Cycle
Larvae feed on decaying organic matter, such as detritus or excrement; more in(8)
Internet References
Works Cited
1.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
2.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.
3.Manual of Nearctic Diptera Volume 1
Varies for each chapter; edited by J.F. McAlpine, B.V. Petersen, G.E. Shewell, H.J. Teskey, J.R. Vockeroth, D.M. Wood. 1981. Research Branch Agriculture Canada.
4.Urban Scatopsidae (Diptera) of Los Angeles, California, United States
Amorim and Brown. 2020. Insect Systematics and Diversity.
5.Description of a New Species of the Genus Psectrosciara and a New Record of Parascatopse sonorensis From Florida
H Huerta and L.J. Hribar. 2015. Journal of Insect Science 15(1): 111.
6.Two new genera of Swammerdamellini (Diptera, Scatopsidae), with a discussion of the position of the species of Rhexoza
Dalton De Souza Amorim. 2007. Zootaxa 1640: 41–53.
7.Manual of Central American Diptera
Brian V. Brown et al. 2009. NRC Research Press.
8.Evenhuis N.L. (ed.) Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian regions (online version)
9.Diptera.info