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Family CHLOROPIDAE
The family Chloropidae, sometimes referred to as grass- or
frit-flies, contains small, usually yellowish or blackish acalypterate flies
found worldwide. Over 2,000 species have been described in more than 160
genera. Adults of living forms occur in grasses, flowers, and some (the
"eye gnats") are attracted to the eyes and open wounds of humans and
animals. Larvae are mostly saprophagous or
phytophagous, feeding in a variety of habits including cereals and grasses,
insect frass, decaying plant matter, and fungi. Others are predaceous or
parasitic.
In addition to the determined taxa listed here, Kulicka in Kosmowska-Ceranowicz
(1990) and Kulicka (1993) listed an undetermined
specimen of this family from Baltic amber in collection of the Museum of the
Earth, Warsaw, and Poinar (1992) recorded material from the Oligocene/ Miocene
amber of the Dominican Republic and the Miocene amber of Chiapas, Mexico.
The report of an undetermined example of this family from
the Upper Cretaceous Canadian amber (McAlpine & Martin 1969) was later
refuted in a communication from McAlpine to E.P. Narchuk
(Kovalev (1979). Whalley’s (1981) record of material of what may be the oldest representative of the family from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon [and repeated by Poinar (1992)] is actually a the hybotid Phaetempis Grimaldi & Cumming, 1999. Zlobin (2007) examined Hippelates brodei Cockerell and considered it as incertae sedis.
Genus CHLOROPS Meigen
*CHLOROPS
Meigen, 1803: 278. Type species: Musca pumilionis Bjerkander, 1778, by
designation of I.C.Z.N. (1955: 423).
*OSCINIS
Latreille, 1804: 196. Type species: Musca lineata Fabricius, 1781
[preoccupied, = Musca pumilionis Bjerkander, 1778], by subsequent
designation of Zetterstedt (1838: 77879).
anthracinus
Statz, 1940: 153. PA: Germany (Oligocene) [C]. [Preoccupied by Meigen, 1830; no
new replacement name proposed at this time.]
aquisextanus Théobald, 1937a: 356. PA: France
(Oligocene) [C].
Unidentified
sp. - PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A] (Hennig, 1965: 204).
Genus PROTOSCINELLA
Hennig
PROTOSCINELLA
Hennig, 1965: 206. Type species: Protoscinella
electrica Hennig, 1965, by monotypy.
electrica
Hennig, 1965: 206. PA: Baltic Region (Eocene/Oligocene) [A].
Genus PROTOSCINIS
Cockerell
PROTOSCINIS
Cockerell, 1917b: 380. Type species: Protoscinis
perparvus Cockerell, 1917, by original
designation.
perparvus Cockerell, 1917b: 380. PA: UK (England)
(Eocene/Oligocene) [C].
Genus TRICIMBA
TRICIMBA Lioy, 1864: 1125. Type species: Oscinis lineella Fallén, 1820, by subsequent designation of Enerlein (1911: 207)
Undetermined
sp. - PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A] (Tschirnhaus & Hoffeins, 2009: 202).
Unplaced Species of
CHLOROPIDAE
aberrans Meunier, 1905a: 91 (Agromyza).
PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].
brodiei Cockerell, 1915c: 496 (Hippelates). PA:
UK (England) (Eocene/Oligocene) [C].