Overview

Pseudopomyza collessi McAlpine lives in cool, damp forests in eastern Australia. Larvae of Palaearctic pseudopomyzids are recorded from rotting logs, but New Zealand species are sometimes associated with fowl-yards (Harrison 1976; I. Andrew pers. comm.).

Description

The two Australian species are small to minute flies with the following diagnostic features:

Antenna almost horizontal, with first flagellomere not drooping; postocellar bristles convergent; vibrissa present; all orbital bristles reclinate; face at least partly desclerotised on lower median part; tibiae without dorsal bristles; four pairs of dorsocentral bristles present; vein C with both subcostal and humeral breaks; cells bm and dm confluent, cell cup very small, but vein A1+CuA2 sclerotised.

Distribution

This very small family has a sparse and possibly relict world distribution. New Zealand has more species than Australia, and there is a Baltic amber fossil (early Tertiary). These flies have sometimes been included in the Cypselosomatidae, but may be more closely related to the Neriidae.