Flies are one of four superradiations of insects (along with beetles, wasps, and moths) that account for the majority of animal life on Earth. Diptera includes species known for their ubiquity (Musca domestica house fly), their role as pests (Anopheles gambiae malaria mosquito), and their value as model organisms across the biological sciences (Drosophila melanogaster). A resolved phylogeny for flies provides a framework for genomic, developmental, and evolutionary studies by facilitating comparisons across model organisms, yet recent research has suggested that fly relationships have been obscured by multiple episodes of rapid diversification. We provide a phylogenomic estimate of fly relationships based on molecules and morphology from 149 of 157 families, including 30 kb from 14 nuclear loci and complete mitochondrial genomes combined with 371 morphological characters. Multiple analyses show support for traditional groups (Brachycera, Cyclorrhapha, and Schizophora) and corroborate contentious findings, such as the anomalous Deuterophlebiidae as the sister group to all remaining Diptera. Our findings reveal that the closest relatives of the Drosophilidae are highly modified parasites (including the wingless Braulidae) of bees and other insects. Furthermore, we use micro-RNAs to resolve a node with implications for the evolution of embryonic development in Diptera. We demonstrate that flies experienced three episodes of rapid radiation-lower Diptera (220 Ma), lower Brachycera (180 Ma), and Schizophora (65 Ma)-and a number of life history transitions to hematophagy, phytophagy, and parasitism in the history of fly evolution over 260 million y.T he history of life is often portrayed as an ongoing series of evolutionary bursts, with each representing the origin and diversification of unique life forms with different and ecologically significant adaptations. Although the radiations of some groups, such as cichlid fishes of the lakes of East Africa or Darwin's finches, are well documented (1), the big radiations that account for most of the diversity of life on Earth have been more challenging to explore. To understand these radiations, we must resolve the relationships among major taxa, date the origin of these lineages (many of them ancient), and then explicitly consider whether the diversification events are really pulse-like adaptive radiations or, more simply, the result of nonadaptive, or even random, neutral processes.Although the paradigm of adaptive radiation has been applied to every level of biological classification, the large-scale macroevolutionary pattern expected from ancient repeated episodes of adaptive radiation is unclear. It has been predicted that at this scale, ecologically driven diversification may result in (i) significant variation in clade size, uncorrelated to the age of the clade (2), and (ii) shifts in average diversification rate coincident with major shifts in morphology, life history, or ecology (3). Another macroevolutionary prediction of repeated adaptive radiation is the widespre...

Abstract. Diptera are one of the three largest and most diverse animal groups in the world. As an often neglected but important group of pollinators, they play a significant role in agrobiodiversity and the biodiversity of plants everywhere. Flies are present in almost all habitats and biomes and for many medicinal, food and ornamental plants, pollinating flies guarantee or enhance seed and fruit production. They are important in the natural landscape, in agriculture and in greenhouses, and have recently come into use in the production of seeds for seed banks. The Sao Paulo Pollinator Initiative, the CBD, and Pollinator secretariats were important starting points in the international recognition of pollinator importance. However, large gaps in our knowledge of the role of Diptera in pollination networks need to be addressed in order to sustain agriculture and to enable appropriate responses to climate change. At this 9th Conference of the Parties we would like to draw attention to the role of often-neglected Dipteran pollinators, to stress their current importance and potential future, use as pollinators in agriculture. A case study on flower flies that act as important pollinators, as adults, and major biocontrol agents, as larvae, illustrates their double importance for agriculture.

Adult Syrphidae, commonly called "Flower or Hover Flies", are rather conspicuous flies. Their size ranges from 4 mm to over 25 mm and their coloration from bright yellows and oranges to dull drab blacks and grays with a few iridescent forms. Many syrphid flies are Batesian mimics of stinging Hymenoptera and are highly beneficial as pollinators. The larvae of most syrphids are of little direct importance to man. A few are pests of Narcissus bulbs (Eumerus and Merodon), others have occasionally been reported to cause intestinal myiasis in man (Eristalis), and some of the predaceous syrphines are of importance in the control of aphids and other Homoptera. Syrphid flies are wordwide in distribution, with their greatest diversity of forms in the New World tropics. Despite this interesting diversity and the critical zoogeographic importance of the Neotropical area, the South American forms are still poorly known. The higher classification of the Neotropical Syrphidae has been recently revised in large part by Vockeroth (1969, tribes of Syrphinae, genera of Syrphini) and Thompson (1969, Microdontinae; 1972, Milesiinae), but much still needs to be done on the specific level. The first catalog of Neotropical Syrphidae was written by Williston (1886; corrections, 1887a). Aldrich's Catalogue of North American Diptera (19C5) included many Neotropical species, since his coverage included Central America. Kertesz (1910) provided a World catalog but his work on the New World was largely based on Williston and Aldrich.

A new genus and species of flower flies is described from China (Furcantenna Cheng, type F. yangi Cheng). Another new genus is proposed for the Afrotropical species incorrectly placed in Ceratophya, Afromicrodon Thompson, type Microdon johannae Doesburg. A key is provided to the groups of the Subfamily Microdontinae, along with a checklist of genus-group names proposed within the subfamily and nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on them.