DIPTERA > BRACHYCERA | Higher Diptera

MUSCOMORPHA > SCHIZOPHORA > Acalypratae > Conopoidea > Conopidae (24 species)

(subfamilies: Conopinae and Myopinae)

A family of mainly brightly coloured flies where a number of species of the Conopinae subfamily have striking black-and-yellow markings that closely resemble solitary wasps. Myopinae are smaller and generally duller in colour, although some have bright markings. Conopids are internal parasitoids of bees and wasps with the female laying a single egg inside the host, which she catches in flight, firmly grasping the abdomen of her victim with special appendages on her own abdomen. Adults feed on nectar and can regularly be found visiting flowers. They prefer warm dry areas rich in flowers that the females can fly slowly through looking for a suitable host. Other suitable areas are those close to blooming heather or near trees and shrubs that are in flower.

General characteristics for the family are given as small to large (3-20mm, more often 5-15mm), slender to stout flies, often lustrous with a black and yellow wasp-like colour pattern, or with reddish brown markings; head very wide; proboscis nearly always long, forward projecting, and sometimes bent back from middle; arista bare; ocelli present or absent (Conopinae); ocellar bristles small or absent; wings usually clear, but in some cases with dark markings; costa continuous; vein Sc complete; crossvein BM-Cu present; cell cup closed; apex of anal cell at or fairly near to the wing margins; tibiae with (Myopinae) or without dorsal preapical bristle.