This suborder contains the delicate flies that are generally characterised by having an elongated body, long slender legs and typically long, thin, segmented antennae. Whereas Brachycera effectively means species with 'shortened-horns', Nematocera translates as 'thread-horns'. The larvae are mostly aquatic of some form, or fungus feeders, but there are some, such as the various cranefly species, that are soil-dwellers.

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Although Nematocera is the smaller of the two Diptera suborders, there are still close on 3,000 species within 25 families which, in accordance with the "Checklist of the Diptera of the British Isles', are separated into ten superfamilies and five infraorders. The original version of this page only included ten or so families, but over the past couple of years I've slowly managed to up that number such that all of the main families are now represented to some degree. The few families that are currently missing only include 3 or 4 species, so it may well take a while for those to be added to the list. 

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As the website has evolved, I've also been adding more information to many of the associated 'family accounts'. In many cases the text is disproportionately long in comparison with the photos I've been able to include, but that's not surprising when so many of these species are really small and difficult, if not impossible, to identify. I'm trying to be selective with the photos that I'm featuring, particularly when the species is undetermined. That will be very much dependent on the family, so I'm trying to strike a balance. The other factor is that many of these species are rather inconspicuous, hard to spot and usually a lot harder to photograph. I see no point including poorly focused images as I want to present the best photos that I can, which is why some of the individual accounts may be updated a number of times each year if I manage to get better photos or indeed photos of new species.

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The family accounts are accessed as usual by clicking any of the thumbnail images for that particular family. Some will be covered on separate pages, but that will be obvious from the text or when browsing through. 

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