Ptychopteridae, or false crane flies, are small to medium-sized flies very similar in general habitus to crane flies (Tipulidae and related families). More than 60 described species are known worldwide. Immatures of living forms are found in saturated mud along stream edges.

The family is known in the fossil record primarily from Tertiary strata of the Holarctic Region. A single species has been described by Kalugina (1989) from the Jurassic deposits of Siberia. Its generic affinities are unknown and it is listed in this catalog as unplaced to genus. A pupa of an undetermined species of Ptychoptera from the Jurassic of Siberia was recorded by Brauer et al. (1889), but needs to be examined to confirm the generic identification. It is provisionally listed here.

Ref.: Freiwald & Willman (1992, review of fossil taxa).

*BITTACOMORPHELLA Alexander, 1916: 545 (as Bittacomorpha Macquart subgenus). Type species: Bittacomorpha jonesi Johnson, 1905, by original designation.
miocenica Cockerell, 1910c: 280 (Bittacomorpha). NE: USA (Oligocene) [C].

PROBITTACOMORPHA Freiwald & Willman, 1992: 182. Type species: Probittacomorpha christenseni Freiwald & Willman, 1992, by original designation.
christenseni Freiwald & Willman, 1992: 182. PA: Denmark (Paleocene/Eocene) [C].

LIRIOPE Meigen, 1800: 14. Suppressed by I.C.Z.N. (1963: 339).
*PTYCHOPTERA Meigen, 1803: 262. Type species: Tipula contaminata Linnaeus, 1758, by subsequent designation of Latreille (1810: 442).
Unidentified sp.-PA: Russia (Siberia) (Middle/Upper Jurassic) [C] (Brauer et al., 1889: 20).

PTYCHOPTERULA Handlirsch, 1909: 269. Type species: Ptychoptera deleta Novák, 1877, by monotypy.
deleta Novák, 1877: 88 (Ptychoptera). PA: Czech Republic (Oligocene) [C].

mesozoica Kalugina, 1989: 75 (1990: 73) (Ptychoptera). PA: Russia (Siberia) (Lower Cretaceous) [C].