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Background Blowflies are ubiquitous insects, often shiny and metallic, and the larvae of many species provide important ecosystem services (e.g., recycling carrion) and are used in forensics and debridement therapy. Yet, the taxon has repeatedly been recovered to be para- or polyphyletic, and the lack of a well-corroborated phylogeny has prevented a robust classification. Results We here resolve the relationships between the different blowfly subclades by including all recognized subfamilies in a phylogenomic analysis using 2221 single-copy nuclear protein-coding genes of Diptera. Maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP), and coalescent-based phylogeny reconstructions all support the same relationships for the full data set. Based on this backbone phylogeny, blowflies are redefined as the most inclusive monophylum within the superfamily Oestroidea not containing Mesembrinellidae, Mystacinobiidae, Oestridae, Polleniidae, Sarcophagidae, Tachinidae, and Ulurumyiidae. The constituent subfamilies are re-classified as Ameniinae (including the Helicoboscinae, syn. nov. ), Bengaliinae, Calliphorinae (including Aphyssurinae, syn. nov. , Melanomyinae, syn. nov. , and Toxotarsinae, syn. nov. ), Chrysomyinae, Luciliinae, Phumosiinae, Rhiniinae stat. rev. , and Rhinophorinae stat. rev . Metallic coloration in the adult is shown to be widespread but does not emerge as the most likely ground plan feature. Conclusions Our study provides the first phylogeny of oestroid calyptrates including all blowfly subfamilies. This allows settling a long-lasting controversy in Diptera by redefining blowflies as a well-supported monophylum, and blowfly classification is adjusted accordingly. The archetypical blowfly trait of carrion-feeding maggots most likely evolved twice, and the metallic color may not belong to the blowfly ground plan.

Calyptrate flies include about 22,000 extant species currently classified into Hippoboscoidea (tsetse, louse, and bat flies), the muscoid grade (house flies and relatives) and the Oestroidea (blow flies, bot flies, flesh flies, and relatives). Calyptrates are abundant in nearly all terrestrial ecosystems, often playing key roles as decomposers, parasites, parasitoids, vectors of pathogens, and pollinators. For oestroids, the most diverse group within calyptrates, definitive fossils have been lacking. The first unambiguous fossil of Oestroidea is described based on a specimen discovered in amber from the Dominican Republic. The specimen was identified through digital dissection by CT scans, which provided morphological data for a cladistic analysis of its phylogenetic position among extant oestroids. The few known calyptrate fossils were used as calibration points for a molecular phylogeny (16S, 28S, CAD) to estimate the timing of major diversification events among the Oestroidea. Results indicate that: (a) the fossil belongs to the family Mesembrinellidae, and it is identified and described as Mesembrinella caenozoica sp. nov.; (b) the mesembrinellids form a sister clade to the Australian endemic Ulurumyia macalpinei (Ulurumyiidae) (McAlpine's fly), which in turn is sister to all remaining oestroids; (c) the most recent common ancestor of extant Calyptratae lived just before the K-Pg boundary (ca. 70 mya); and (d) the radiation of oestroids began in the Eocene (ca. 50 mya), with the origin of the family Mesembrinellidae dated at ca. 40 mya. These results provide new insight into the timing and rate of oestroid diversification and highlight the rapid radiation of some of the most diverse and ecologically important families of flies. ZooBank accession number-urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0DC5170B-1D16-407A-889E-56EED3FE3627.

Background The most species-rich radiation of animal life in the 66 million years following the Cretaceous extinction event is that of schizophoran flies: a third of fly diversity including Drosophila fruit fly model organisms, house flies, forensic blow flies, agricultural pest flies, and many other well and poorly known true flies. Rapid diversification has hindered previous attempts to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships among major schizophoran clades. A robust phylogenetic hypothesis for the major lineages containing these 55,000 described species would be critical to understand the processes that contributed to the diversity of these flies. We use protein encoding sequence data from transcriptomes, including 3145 genes from 70 species, representing all superfamilies, to improve the resolution of this previously intractable phylogenetic challenge. Results Our results support a paraphyletic acalyptrate grade including a monophyletic Calyptratae and the monophyly of half of the acalyptrate superfamilies. The primary branching framework of Schizophora is well supported for the first time, revealing the primarily parasitic Pipunculidae and Sciomyzoidea stat. rev. as successive sister groups to the remaining Schizophora. Ephydroidea, Drosophila ’s superfamily, is the sister group of Calyptratae. Sphaeroceroidea has modest support as the sister to all non-sciomyzoid Schizophora. We define two novel lineages corroborated by morphological traits, the ‘Modified Oviscapt Clade’ containing Tephritoidea, Nerioidea, and other families, and the ‘Cleft Pedicel Clade’ containing Calyptratae, Ephydroidea, and other families. Support values remain low among a challenging subset of lineages, including Diopsidae. The placement of these families remained uncertain in both concatenated maximum likelihood and multispecies coalescent approaches. Rogue taxon removal was effective in increasing support values compared with strategies that maximise gene coverage or minimise missing data. Conclusions Dividing most acalyptrate fly groups into four major lineages is supported consistently across analyses. Understanding the fundamental branching patterns of schizophoran flies provides a foundation for future comparative research on the genetics, ecology, and biocontrol.

The Fannidae includes over 400 described species, mainly known from the Holarctic Region. The number of species in the Oriental Region are underestimated. The -group was established by Wang et al. in 2011, consisting of nine species at present. A new species of the genus (Diptera, Fanniidae) is described from Yunnan, part of the Oriental Region in China, namely The detailed description, photographs and drawings of adults and male terminalia of are provided. All specimens are preserved in the Museum of Beijing Forestry University.

The Muscomorpha is one of the most species‐rich brachyceran groups in Diptera, with many species serving as important disease vectors; however, its high‐level phylogenetic relationships have long been controversial and unsolved. This study comparatively analyzed the characteristics of mitogenomes of 131 species that represent 18 superfamilies in Muscomorpha, in which mitogenomes of 16 species have been newly sequenced and annotated, demonstrating that their gene composition, order, AT bias, length variation, and codon usage are consistent with documented dipteran mitogenomes. The phylogenetic topologies demonstrated that the robustness of Muscomorpha and major clades within Muscomorpha are monophyletic: Cyclorrhapha, Schizophora, and Calyptratae. A clade of Empidoidea were recovered as the sister group to Cyclorrhapha. Within Cyclorrhapha, Platypezoidea and Syrphoidea were sequentially placed as basal groups of the Cyclorrhapha. The remaining cyclorrhaph superfamilies gathered as two main clades. Ephydroidea were, in most cases, placed as the sister group to Calyptratae. Within Calyptratae, Hippoboscoidea were sister to an assemblage of lineages composed of an Oestroid grade and Muscoidea. The Muscomorpha was proposed to originate in the early Jurassic, and the main clade diversified near the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, estimated using the MCMCtree and six fossil calibration points. The ancestral area of origin and geographic range of Muscomorpha was deduced to be the Palaearctic region with 56.9% probability using the RASP software based on a dated tree. This study comparatively analyzed the mitogenome characteristics of 131 species that represent 18 superfamilies in Muscomorpha, in which mitogenomes of 16 species are newly sequenced and annotated herein. Further, we deduced their phylogenetics using maximum likelihood, and discussed their divergence time and evolution combined with taxonomy and historical geography. This is the first comprehensive work on characteristics of mitogenome, and mitogenome‐based phylogenetics and evolution in Muscomorpha, which lays an important base for further study on mitogenomics and systematics of Muscomorpha.

Sex chromosomes and sex determining genes can evolve fast, with the sex-linked chromosomes often differing between closely related species. Population genetics theory has been developed and tested to explain the rapid evolution of sex chromosomes and sex determination. However, we do not know why the sex chromosomes are divergent in some taxa and conserved in others. Addressing this question requires comparing closely related taxa with conserved and divergent sex chromosomes to identify biological features that could explain these differences. Cytological karyotypes suggest that muscid flies (e.g., house fly) and blow flies are such a taxonomic pair. The sex chromosomes appear to differ across muscid species, whereas they are conserved across blow flies. Despite the cytological evidence, we do not know the extent to which muscid sex chromosomes are independently derived along different evolutionary lineages. To address that question, we used genomic and transcriptomic sequence data to identify young sex chromosomes in two closely related muscid species, horn fly (Haematobia irritans) and stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans). We provide evidence that the nascent sex chromosomes of horn fly and stable fly were derived independently from each other and from the young sex chromosomes of the closely related house fly (Musca domestica). We present three different scenarios that could have given rise to the sex chromosomes of horn fly and stable fly, and we describe how the scenarios could be distinguished. Distinguishing between these scenarios in future work could identify features of muscid genomes that promote sex chromosome divergence.

Dexopollenia guangxiensis Liu, Li & Yao, sp. nov. , Dexopollenia chongqingensis Liu, Li & Yao, sp. nov. and Xanthotryxus huapingensis Liu, Li & Yao, sp. nov. from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing are described and illustrated. Keys to species of the genera Dexopollenia and Xanthotryxus from China are provided. Photographs of the habitus and male genitalia of the new species are also provided.

Records of 15 interesting species belonging to four families of Diptera Calyptratae, viz., Anthomyiidae (4 species), Muscidae (3 species), Sarcophagidae (3 species) and Tachinidae (5 species) from glacial sand deposits in the Czech Silesia (NE Czech Republic) and S Poland are presented and their association with sandy habitats discussed. A total of 14 species are recorded from the Czech Silesia for the first time, 10 are new additions to the fauna of Moravia of which 6 are also new for the whole of the Czech Republic. Two species (both Tachinidae) represent first records from Poland and Michelsen, 2009 from the Závada sand-pit is the first from Central Europe. The affinity of the recorded species to sandy habitats is discussed. One of the here reported species is classified as psammobiont ( Michelsen, 2007, Anthomyiidae) and 6 species are considered psammophilous or probably psammophilous, viz., Stein, 1916 (Muscidae), Macquart, 1850, Rondani, 1859, Rohdendorf, 1955 (all Sarcophagidae), (Rondani, 1861) and (Macquart, 1850) (both Tachinidae).

The aim of the present study was to explore the diversity and describe the spatial distribution of Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae along an urbanization gradient in the Iber_a Wetlands. The flies were collected at 18 sampling points, three per site. In total, 3,318 flies were collected (3,077 blow flies and 241 flesh flies), distributed in 13 genera and 33 species. Calliphoridae was themost abundant, comprised 92.74% of all adult flies. Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann), Cochliomyia macellaria (F.), Chrysomya megacephala (F.), and Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann) were the most abundant species, representing 82.21% of the total sample. The genus Oxysarcodexia Townsend was the most diverse with 10 species represented. The abundance of exotic species represents 62.85% of the total sample, showing a reduction toward less disturbed sites. The results of this study indicated that sites with intermediate impact had higher diversity than those where the disturbances are high or absent. Our findings provide the first assessment of Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae diversity in the area of the Iberá Wetlands.

Muscomorpha is one of the most diverse groups in Brachycera, yet its higher-level phylogenetic relationships remain controversial, primarily concerning the monophyly and placement of Syrphoidea, the position of Platypezoidea, internal relationships in Calyptratae and Acalyptratae, and the non-monophyly of Eristalinae in Syrphidae. This study utilized 81 Muscomorpha species, including 22 newly sequenced Syrphidae species, and reconstructed their phylogeny with multiple datasets and models. The results confirmed monophyly of most superfamilies except Syrphoidea, with Platypezoidea as sister to the remaining Muscomorpha. Oestroidea was sister to Muscoidea. Within Syrphidae, Syrphinae monophyly and Syrphini relationships were strongly supported, while Eristalinae was non-monophyletic. Milesiini, Eristalini, Volucellini, Brachyopini, and Rhingiini were monophyletic. Divergence time estimation using MCMCTree indicated that Muscomorpha originated in the Middle Jurassic at approximately 171.66 Mya, with Syrphoidea diverging in the Late Jurassic at 151.05 Mya, Acalyptratae in the Early Cretaceous at 117.50 Mya, Calyptratae in the Late Cretaceous at 84.66 Mya, and Syrphidae at 103.44 Mya. These findings provide a robust phylogenomic framework for Muscomorpha evolution.