The Psilidae compose a small, predominantly Holarctic family of small
to medium-sized mostly brown or yellowish flies with a broad frons and a
perpendicular or receding face.
Adults are generally found in moist or sylvan habitats. The bionomics of
the immatures is not well known, but larvae have been recorded as phytophagous,
being found in the roots and galls of plants.
Australasian/Oceanian representation is meager, with only undescribed specimens
of Chyliza and Loxocera from Australia, and the pest species, Chamaepsila rosae (recorded as an immigrant) found in carrot fields
in northern New Zealand. The unplaced Walker species listed below may or
may not belong to Psilidae. The type could not be found in either the British
Museum or the Oxford Museum (B.R. Pitkin, in litt.)
Refs.: Harrison (1959, NZ spp.), Colless & McAlpine (1970, Australian
spp.), Ferrar (1987, immat.).
CHAMAEPSILA Hendel, 1917: 37. Type species: Musca rosae Fabricius, 1794, orig. des.
rosae Fabricius, 1794: 356 (Musca). East Germany; NZ (NZ)[immigrant];
Nearctic [immigrant], Palearctic Regs.
CHYLIZA Fallén, 1820b: 6. Type species: Musca leptogaster Panzer, 1798, des. Westwood, 1840: 146.
Undetermined sp.--Australia (Qld, Vic) (Colless & McAlpine, 1970: 722).
LOXOCERA Meigen, 1803: 275. Type species: Musca ichneumonea Linnaeus, 1761, mon. [Genus originally proposed with 2 included species,
but one was listed as a synonym of the other.]
Unidentified sp.--?Australia (Qld) (Colless & McAlpine, 1970: 723).
calobatoides Walker, 1865b: 125 (Psila). "New Guinea"
[= Indonesia (Irian Jaya)].
This page last revised 17 August 1996