Curtotonidae is a small family of small grey to dark brown humpbacked flies (Diptera

Diptera

Diptera , or true flies, is the order of insects possessing only a single pair of wings on the mesothorax; the metathorax bears a pair of drumstick like structures called the halteres, the remnants of the hind wings. It is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, although under half...

) with a worldwide distribution but with very few species in the Nearctic

Nearctic

The Nearctic is one of the eight terrestrial ecozones dividing the Earth's land surface.The Nearctic ecozone covers most of North America, including Greenland and the highlands of Mexico...

, Australasian/Oceanian and Palaearctic regions. Most members of the family are found in tropical to subtropical latitude

Latitude

In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...

s in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and the Neotropics. Many remain undescribed in collections, since little work on the family has been done since the 1930s.

Classification

The family has at various times been placed in the Drosophilidae

Drosophilidae

Drosophilidae is a diverse, cosmopolitan family of flies, which includes fruit flies. Another family of flies called Tephritidae also includes fruit flies. The best known species of Drosophilidae is Drosophila melanogaster, within the genus Drosophila, and this species Is used extensively for...

, Diastatidae

Diastatidae

Diastatidae are a type of flies, and are in the family Diptera. They occur primarily in the Holarctic Region, but several species are known from the Oriental, Neotropical, and Australasian regions. Members of the family number over 20 described species in three genera...

, and Ephydridae

Ephydridae

Ephydridae is a family of insects in the order Diptera.Shore flies are tiny flies that can be found near seashores or at smaller inland waters, such as ponds...

 but family rank is now recognised.

Distribution

• Palaearctic 1 species
• Nearctic 1 species
• Australasian/Oceanian 1 species
• Afrotropical many species

Biology

Greathead (1958) records the immature stages as scavengers within egg pods of the desert locust

Desert locust

Plagues of the desert locust have threatened agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for centuries. The livelihood of at least one-tenth of the world’s human population can be affected by this voracious insect...

, Schistocerca gregaria . Cuthbertson (1936) reared an Afrotropical species, Cyrtona albomacula Curran, from human faeces in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

. Others have been found in the burrows of warthog

Warthog

The Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P...

s and ant bear

Aardvark

The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa...

s.

Fossils

Only one fossil species of Curtonotidae is known, Curtonotum gigas Théobald, from Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 deposits in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Gallery

See images at http://www.cedarcreek.umn.edu/insects/newslides/029089001001apo.jpg and at Diptera.info

External links

• RU Revision of the Afrotropical species of Curtonotidae (Diptera: Ephydroidea) systematics, biology, immature stages and biogeography Proposal