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The Tephritoidea are a superfamily of flies. It has over 7,800 species, the majority of them in family Tephritidae.[1]
| Tephritoidea | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Female Physiphora alceae | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Subsection: | Acalyptratae |
| Superfamily: | Tephritoidea |
| Families | |
|
see text | |
The following families are included:[2]
- Ctenostylidae
- Eurygnathomyiidae
- Lonchaeidae - lance flies
- Pallopteridae — flutter flies
- Piophilidae — skippers
- Platystomatidae — signal flies
- Pyrgotidae
- Richardiidae
- Tephritidae — fruit flies
- Ulidiidae (Otitidae) — picture-winged flies
The Tachiniscinae, formerly ranked as the family Tachiniscidae, are now included in the Tephritidae.
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Tephritoidea are generally rather hairy flies with setae weakly differentiated. They have the following synapomorphies: male tergum 6 strongly reduced or absent; surstylus or medial surstylus with toothlike prensisetae (in Piophilidae only in one genus); female sterna 4-6 with anterior rodlike apodemes; female tergosternum 7 consisting of two portions, the anterior forming a tubular oviscape and the posterior consisting of two pairs of longitudinal taeniae.[3]
In most Tephritoidea, the anal cell of a wing has a characteristic shape: the anal crossvein is indented while the cell's outer posterior angle is produced into an acute lobe. The exceptions to this rule are Platystomatidae and some Tephritidae, Ulidiidae (=Otitidae), and Pyrgotidae.[4]
Many tephritoid families have spots or patterns on their wings. These are Pallopteridae,[5] Platystomatidae,[6] Pyrgotidae,[7] Richardiidae,[8] Tephritidae[9] and Ulidiidae.[10]
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Tephritoidea includes plant pests in the families Tephritidae, Lonchaeidae and Ulidiidae.[11][12] In these pest species, adult females lay their eggs on plant tissues, which hatch into larvae that begin feeding.[11] However, Tephritoidea also includes parasitoids (Ctenostylidae, Pyrgotidae and the tephritid subfamily Tachiniscinae) and saprophages that feed on decaying plants (subfamily Phytalmiinae and some Lonchaeidae).[2][11]
Tephritoidea is a monophyletic superfamily that can be divided into two also-monophyletic groups: the Piophilidae Family Group (Pallopteridae, Circumphallidae, Lonchaeidae, Piophilidae and Eurygnathomyiidae) and the Tephritidae Family Group (Richardiidae, Ulidiidae, Platystomatidae, Tephritidae, Ctenostylidae and Pyrgotidae).[2]
The first Tephritoidea are believed to have evolved in the mid-Paleocene, approximately 59 million years ago.[2]
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