NEMESTRINOIDEA, Macquart, 1834

Grimaldi, David A., 2016, Diverse Orthorrhaphan Flies (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera) In Amber From The Cretaceous Of Myanmar: Brachycera In Cretaceous Amber, Part Vii David A. Grimaldi, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2016 (408), pp. 1-132 : 47

SUPERFAMILY NEMESTRINOIDEA

Nemestrinidae are homeodactylus brachycerans. Woodley (1989) placed them with Acro- ceridae into Nemestrinoidea , on the basis of parasitoidal larvae with planidia. Nemestrinoidea were hypothesized as the sister group to the rest of the Muscomorpha ( Asiloidea + Eremoneura) by virtue of the reduced number of cercomeres and flagellomeres and loss of tibial spurs. This grouping has been used here, and by this morphological definition Rhagio- nemestriidae even appears to be an extinct (Mesozoic) transitional group between these two families. Yeates’ (2002) morphological analysis indicated that Nemestrinidae was the sister group to Acroceridae + Heterodactyla, which also makes sense. Some recent molecular evidence supports an Acroceridae + Nemestrinidae grouping ( Winterton et al., 2007), but another study ( Wiegmann et al., 2011) suggests a Nemestrinidae + Xylophagidae sister grouping, which I am unable to reconcile morphologically given the major differences in wing venation, tibial spurs, antennal and cercomere segmentation, and great disparity in genital morphology.