Ricerc@Sapienza

Calyptrates are a megadiverse, actively radiating, group of dipterans, which are widely spread and abundant in nearly all terrestrial environments. Despite huge diversity and economic importance, their phylogeny is far from resolved. Recent attempts employing few taxa seem converging in retrieving monophyly for most of the families and subfamilies, but deep relationships among these, especially for those of the oestroid clade (blow flies and relatives), are labile when not changing.

Calyptrate flies include about 22,000 extant species currently classified into Hippoboscoidea (tsetse, louse, and bat flies), the muscoid grade (house flies and relatives) and the Oestroidea (blow flies, bot flies, flesh flies, and relatives). Calyptrates are abundant in nearly all terrestrial ecosystems, often playing key roles as decomposers, parasites, parasitoids, vectors of pathogens, and pollinators. For oestroids, the most diverse group within calyptrates, definitive fossils have been lacking.