Stalk-eyed Fly - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

True stalk-eyed flies are members of the family Diopsidae, first described by Dr. John Fothergill and named by Carl Linnaeus in 1775. The family Diopsidae is contained within the order Diptera and suborder Cyclorrapha, and features some 150 described species.

It was once recommended that the African genus Centrioncus (once placed in Sepsidae, but then moved to Diopsidae) should be treated as a separate family Centrioncidae, a sister group of the diopsids but since then this lineage has usually been treated as a subfamily.