The Nymphomyiidae are a family of tiny (2 mm) slender, delicate flies (Diptera). Larvae are found among aquatic mosses in small, rapid streams in northern regions of the world, including northeastern North America, Japan, the Himalayas, and eastern Russia. Around a dozen extant species are known, with two fossil species found in amber, extending back to the Mid Cretaceous. Under an alternative classification, they are considered the only living representatives of a separate, suborder called Archidiptera (or Archaediptera) which includes several Triassic fossil members. The family has char
The Nymphomyiidae are a family of tiny (2 mm) slender, delicate flies (Diptera). Larvae are found among aquatic mosses in small, rapid streams in northern regions of the world, including northeastern North America, Japan, the Himalayas, and eastern Russia. Around a dozen extant species are known, with two fossil species found in amber, extending back to the Mid Cretaceous. Under an alternative classification, they are considered the only living representatives of a separate, suborder called Archidiptera (or Archaediptera) which includes several Triassic fossil members. The family has characteristics associated with the Nematocera as well as the Brachycera. The antennae are shortened as in the Brachycera and these flies are long, having a snout with vestigeal mouthparts, non-differentiated abdominal segments with large cerci. The wings are narrow and hair-fringed and have very weak venation. They are known to form cloud-like swarms in summer and the short-lived non-feeding adults have wings that fracture at the base shortly after mating.
The family Nymphomyiidae has several species which were originally placed in separate genera of their own. Nymphomyia alba, the type species for this family, was discovered in a fast-flowing stream in Japan by Masaaki Tokunaga in 1932. This was followed by Palaeodipteron walkeri described by Ide in Quebec in 1965 and Felicitomyia brundini was described from the Himalayas in 1970. Hennig examined the pupal characteristics of Nymphomyia and placed it in the family Psychodidae. Rohdendorf considered Nymphomyia so distinct that he put it in a separate superfamily Nymphomyioidea related to Triassic Dictyodipteridae which are in a suborder Archidiptera. Modern classifications put all the species in a single genus Nymphomyia. Based on larval morphology, the family has been suggested to be close to the Deuterophlebiidae while others place them in a separate infraorder, the Nymphomyiomorpha.
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