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Humpbacked Flies
Phoridae
The Phoridae are a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their method of quickly running across a surface instead of taking flight to escape threats. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names, scuttle fly. Another vernacular name, coffin fly, refers to Conicera tibialis. About 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well-known species is cosmopolitan Megaselia scalaris. At 0.4 mm in length, the world's smallest fly is the phorid Euryplatea nanaknihali.
58 branches of this family, most-observed first

Metopininae
subfamilyMetopininae

Phorinae
subfamilyPhorinae

Sciadocerinae
subfamilySciadocerinae

Chonocephalinae
subfamilyChonocephalinae

Aenigmatiinae
subfamilyAenigmatiinae

Trophodeinus
genusTrophodeinus

Coniceromyia
genusConiceromyia

Abaristophora
genusAbaristophora
Peromitra
genusPeromitra

Hirotophora
genusHirotophora

Pseudohypocera
genusPseudohypocera

Phlebothrix
genusPhlebothrix
Rhyncophoromyia
genusRhyncophoromyia

Myrmosicarius
genusMyrmosicarius

Misotermes
genusMisotermes

Tarsocrates
genusTarsocrates

Wharia
genusWharia
Termitoxenia
genusTermitoxenia

Ecitophora
genusEcitophora

Palpiclavina
genusPalpiclavina

Archiphora
genusArchiphora

Clitelloxenia
genusClitelloxenia

Pseudotermitoxenia
genusPseudotermitoxenia

Thaumatoxena
genusThaumatoxena

Gymnoptera
genusGymnoptera
Tubicera
genusTubicera
Cootiphora
genusCootiphora
Antipodiphora
genusAntipodiphora
Minicosta
genusMinicosta
Bothroprosopa
genusBothroprosopa
Kierania
genusKierania
Plastophora
genusPlastophora
Euryplatea
genusEuryplatea
Brachyselia
genusBrachyselia
Edaphomyia
genusEdaphomyia
Haulepta
genusHaulepta
Quasipseudacteon
genusQuasipseudacteon
Termitophilomyia
genusTermitophilomyia
Syntermitoxenia
genusSyntermitoxenia
Paratermitoxenia
genusParatermitoxenia
Plethysmochaeta
genusPlethysmochaeta
Psyllomyia
genusPsyllomyia

Megapropodiphora
genusMegapropodiphora
Billotia
genusBillotia
Hypocerides
genusHypocerides
Obscuriphora
genusObscuriphora
Poloniphora
genusPoloniphora
Xenotriphleba
genusXenotriphleba
Eurycnemis
genusEurycnemis
Stenophorina
genusStenophorina
Maculiphora
genusMaculiphora
Pericyclocera
genusPericyclocera
Cataclinusa
genusCataclinusa
Vestigipoda
genusVestigipoda
Phoricesa
genusPhoricesa
Epacteon
genusEpacteon
Distichophora
genusDistichophora
Macroselia
genusMacroselia
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Phoridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 55351.