The minute black scavenger flies or "dung midges", Scatopsidae, is a family of Nematoceran flies. Despite being distributed throughout the world, it is quite a small family with only around 250 described species in 27 genera although many await description and doubtless even more await discovery. These are generally small, sometimes minute, dark flies (from 0.6 to 5mm), generally similar to black flies (Simuliidae) but usually lacking the humped thorax characteristic of that family.

The larvae of most species are unknown but the few that have been studied have a rather flattened shape and are terrestrial and saprophagous.

Scatopsids are a well established group and fossils are known from amber deposits dating back to the Cretaceous period.

Scatopse notata (Linnaeus, 1758) is a cosmopolitan species. Its larval stages are found in decaying plant and animal material.

Genera

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• Anapausis Enderlein, 1912
• Apiloscatopse Cook, 1874
• Arthria Kirby, 1837
• Aspistes Meigen, 1818
• Austroclemina
• Borneoscatopse
• Brahemyia Amorim, 2007
• Coboldia Melander, 1916 (sometimes erroneously as Colboldia)
• Colobostema Enderlein, 1926
• Cooka Amorin, 2007
• Diamphidicus Cook, 1971
• Efcookella
• Ectaetia Enderlein, 1912
• Ferneiella Cook, 1974
• Hawomersleya Cook, 1971
• Holoplagia Enderlein, 1912
• † Mesoscatopse
• Neorhegmoclemina
• Parascatopse Cook, 1955
• Parmaferia Cook, 1977
• † Procolobostema
• † Protoscatopse
• Psectrosciara Kieffer, 1911
• Quateiella Cook, 1975
• Reichertella Enderlein, 1912
• Rhegmoclema Enderlein, 1912
• Rhegmoclemina Enderlein, 1936
• Rhexoza Enderlein, 1936
• Scatopse Geoffroy, 1762 (sometimes erroneously as Scatops or Scathops)
• Swammerdamella Enderlein, 1912
• Thripomorpha Enderlein, 1905

Name

The family name Scatopsidae literally translates to "looks like feces" (from Greek skat "dung" and opsi "appearance"), but this seems to be a misinterpretation. It is derived from the genus Scatopse, which was misspelled as Scatops.

See also

• List of Australian Scatopsidae

References

• [1] [2] - Family descriptions
• Australasian/Oceanian Diptera Catalog (Google cache)

Further reading

Species descriptions

• Cook, E.F. (1969). A synopsis of the Scatopsidae of the Palaearctic Part I. Rhegmoclematini. Journal of Natural History 3(3): 393-407 doi:10.1080/00222936900770341 (HTML abstract)
• Cook, E.F. (1972). A synopsis of the Scatopsidae of the Palaearctic Part II. Swammerdamellini. Journal of Natural History 6(6): 625-634. doi:10.1080/00222937200770561
• Cook, E.F. (1974). A Synopsis of the Scatopsidae of the palaearctic Part III. The Scatopsini. Journal of Natural History 8(1): 61-100 doi:10.1080/00222937400770061

Fossil record

• de Souza Amorim, D. (1998). Amber Fossil Scatopsidae (Diptera: Psychodomorpha). I. Considerations on Described Taxa, Procolobostema roseni, new species, from Dominican Amber, and the Position of Procolobostema in the Family. American Museum Novitates 3227; 1-17. PDF fulltext