Tephritoidea are generally rather hairy flies with setae weakly differentiated. They have the following synapomorphies: male tergum 6 strongly reduced or absent; surstylus or medial surstylus with toothlike prensisetae (in Piophilidae only in one genus); female sterna 4-6 with anterior rodlike apodemes; female tergosternum 7 consisting of two portions, the anterior forming a tubular oviscape and the posterior consisting of two pairs of longitudinal taeniae.[3]
In most Tephritoidea, the anal cell of a wing has a characteristic shape: the anal crossvein is indented while the cell's outer posterior angle is produced into an acute lobe. The exceptions to this rule are Platystomatidae and some Tephritidae, Ulidiidae (=Otitidae), and Pyrgotidae.[4]
Many tephritoid families have spots or patterns on their wings. These are Pallopteridae,[5] Platystomatidae,[6] Pyrgotidae,[7] Richardiidae,[8] Tephritidae[9] and Ulidiidae.[10]
Tephritoidea includes plant pests in the families Tephritidae, Lonchaeidae and Ulidiidae.[11][12] In these pest species, adult females lay their eggs on plant tissues, which hatch into larvae that begin feeding.[11] However, Tephritoidea also includes parasitoids (Ctenostylidae, Pyrgotidae and the tephritid subfamily Tachiniscinae) and saprophages that feed on decaying plants (subfamily Phytalmiinae and some Lonchaeidae).[2][11]
Tephritoidea is a monophyletic superfamily that can be divided into two also-monophyletic groups: the Piophilidae Family Group (Pallopteridae, Circumphallidae, Lonchaeidae, Piophilidae and Eurygnathomyiidae) and the Tephritidae Family Group (Richardiidae, Ulidiidae, Platystomatidae, Tephritidae, Ctenostylidae and Pyrgotidae).[2]
