Anthomyzidae are small, slender, yellow to black flies

Fließ

Fließ is a municipality in the Landeck district and is located5 km south of Landeck on the upper course of the Inn River. It has 9 hamlets and was already populated at the roman age; the village itself was founded around the 6th century. After a conflagration in 1933 Fließ was restored more...

 with narrow and elongate wings, which may have distinct markings. Some species have greatly reduced wings. Fewer than 100 species are known, mostly from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Although they occur in all major regions, they seem to be most varied in the Holarctic

Holarctic

The Holarctic ecozone refers to the habitats found throughout the northern continents of the world as a whole. This region is divided into the Palearctic, consisting of Northern Africa and all of Eurasia, with the exception of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and the Nearctic,...

 Region

Around 20 diverse genera

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 have been placed in the family. Two, Teratomyza and Teratoptera are now in Teratomyzidae, and Cyamops and Stenomicra are in Stenomicridae. Melanthomyza Malloch from Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 should probably not be retained in the family. The remaining genera are very similar to one another.

Biology

Larvae have been reported from decaying dicotyledonous plants, and from fungi and , in Europe, from leaf sheaths of various grasses and of Typha

Typha

Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan, being found in a variety of wetland habitats...

 and Juncus

Juncus

Juncus is a genus in the plant family Juncaceae. It consists of some 200 to 300 or more species of grassy plants commonly called rushes...

, from Lipara galls on Phragmites

Phragmites

Phragmites, the Common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Phragmites australis is sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus Phragmites, though some botanists divide Phragmites australis into three or four species...

, It is possible that they may be either phytophagous or saprophagous, but there seem to be no reports of damage to cereals or other plants.

Further reading

• Jindřich Roháček, 1996. Revision of Palaearctic Stiphrosoma, including the Anthomyza-laeta group (Diptera, Anthomyzidae). Eur. J. Entomol. 93:89-120, ISSN 1210-5759 European Journal of Entomology
• Jindřich Roháček, 1998. Taxonomic limits, phylogeny and higher classification of Anthomyzidae (Diptera), with special regard to fossil record. Eur. J. Entomol. 95:141-177, ISSN 1210-5759 European Journal of Entomology
• Jindřich Roháček, 2006. A monograph of Palaearctic Anthomyzidae (Diptera), Part 1.published as supplement 1 of the Časopis Slezského zemského muzea, Vol. 55 (2006) 326 pages , 661 black-and-white illustrations. ISSN 1211-3026, ISBN 80-86224-57-0
• Jindřich Roháček, 2007. Zealantha thorpei gen. et sp. nov. (Diptera: Anthomyzidae), first family representative from New Zealand. Zootaxa 1576: 1–13 Zootaxa