The Nematocera (the name meaning "thread-horns") are a suborder of elongated
flies with thin, segmented
antennae and mostly aquatic
larvae. This group is
paraphyletic and contains all flies but species from suborder
Brachycera[4] (the name meaning "short-horns"), which includes more commonly known species such as the
housefly or the
common fruit fly. The equivalent
clade to Nematocera is the whole Diptera, with Brachycera as a subclade. Families in Nematocera include
mosquitoes,
crane flies,
gnats,
black flies, and multiple families commonly known as
midges. The Nematocera typically have fairly long, fine, finely-jointed antennae. In many species, such as most mosquitoes, the female antennae are more or less threadlike, but the males have spectacularly
plumose antennae.
The larvae of most families of Nematocera are aquatic, either free-swimming, rock-dwelling, plant-dwelling, or
luticolous. Some families however, are not aquatic; for instance the
Tipulidae tend to be soil-dwelling and the
Mycetophilidae feed on fungi such as mushrooms. Unlike most of the Brachycera, the larvae of Nematocera have distinct heads with mouthparts that may be modified for filter feeding or chewing, depending on their lifestyles.
The
pupae are
orthorrhaphous which means that adults emerge from the pupa through a straight, longitudinal seam in the dorsal surface of the pupal cuticle.
The bodies and legs of most adult Nematocera are elongated, and many species have relatively long abdomens.
Males of many species form mating swarms like faint pillars of smoke, competing for females that visit the cloud of males to find a mate.
Families
These families belong to the suborder Nematocera:[3][5][6]
Anisopodidae Knab, 1912 - wood gnats or window-gnats
^Schiner, I.R. (1868). Diptera. vi In [Wullerstorf-Urbair, B. von (in charge)], Reise der osterreichischen Fregatte Novara. Zool. 2(1)B. Wien: K. Gerold's Sohn. pp. 388pp., 4 pls.
Borror, D. J., DeLong, D. M., Triplehorn, C. A.(1976) Fourth edition. An introduction to the study of insects. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York, Chicago.
ISBN0-03-088406-3
Arnett, R. H. Jr. (2000) Second edition. American insects. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Londres, New York, Washington, D. C.
ISBN0-8493-0212-9