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Hi Folks,
I am trying to update the diptera part of my website, starting with the basal brachycerans, however the whole thing is 15 years out of date and so any data will be used eventually.

I am using Fauna Europea for numbers in Europe, and so i have these.

Right now I am looking for data on the known or suspected number of species world wide for any family really, whatever your expertise is please contribute, but particularly.

Rhagionidae
Xylomyidae
Xylophagidae

I am also interested in advice on
1)Robber Flies vs 2)Robber-flies
I was taught that real flies had their common names hyphenated, but then you have a problem with Long-legged Flies or Small-headed Flies.
A double hyphenation would not work, but then should all fly names be completely separated as in 1 above.

All opinions gladly accepted

Gordon

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Names: Hyphens when applicable in the part before 'flies'. 'Flies' is always separated in the order Diptera, and in one word (or occasionally perhaps hyphenated) in other orders.

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Hi Gordon,

Schumann et al. (1999) mention the following approx. world species numbers, but might be somewhat outdated:

Rhagionidae ~560
Xylomyidae ~105
Xylophagidae ~70


You may have a look at the BDWD, which give also a good guess, but keep in mind the status column for each family (cf. quality assurance).

Recently, a paper dealing with the global diversity of freshwater Diptera was published (Wagner et al. 2008), which might be of interest.

so long,
xylo

btw: you have post.....


literature cited:

Schumann, H.; Bährmann, R. & Stark, A. [eds.] (1999): Entomofauna Germanica 2. Checkliste der Dipteren Deutschlands. - Studia dipterologica Supplement 2: 1-354.

Wagner, R. et al. (2008): Global diversity of dipteran families (Insecta Diptera)in freshwater (excluding Simulidae, Culicidae, Chironomidae, Tipulidae and Tabanidae). - Hydrobiologia 595:489-519.

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Thanks Paul and Xylo,
Yes the emails arrived fine thank you.

Gordon