The Culicomorpha are an infraorder of Nematocera, including mosquitoes, black flies, and several extant and extinct families of insects.[1] They originated 176 million years ago, in the Triassic period. There are phylogenetic patterns that are used to interpret bionomic features such as differences in the nature of blood-feeding by adult females, daytime or nighttime feeding by adult females, and occurrence of immature stages in aquatic habitats.[1]
Most adult, females lay their eggs on bodies of water. Some are restricted to very clean waters, but others can tolerate highly polluted environments.[2]
The Culicomorpha comprises extant eight families divided into two superfamilies. It was described based on phylogenetic analyses of morphological features.[5][6][7]
The monophyly of Culicomorpha and Culicoidea have been confirmed in subsequent morphological and molecular studies, but several studies have found Chironomoidea to be paraphyletic.[6][7][8] A morphological study in 2012, using characters from all life stages (egg, larva, pupae and adult), found that Chironomidae branched first and a sister relationship between Culicoidea and a clade of Simuliidae, Ceratopogonidae and Thamaleidae. A new superfamily, Simulioidea, was proposed for the latter clade and restricted Chironomoidea to Chironomidae.[1] A phylogenomic analysis in 2018 also found a paraphyletic Chironomoidea and a close relationship between Simuliidae and Thamaleidae, but in this study Ceratopoginidae grouped with Chironomidae.[8] The phylogenetic trees below illustrate the different arrangements.
^ abWood, D. M.; Borkent, A. (1989). "Phylogeny and Classilication of the Nematocera". In McAlpine, J.F.; Woods, D.M. (eds.). Manual of Nearctic Diptera, vol. 3(PDF). Ottawa: Agriculture Canada Research Branch.
^ abYeates, David K.; Weigmann, Brian M; Courtney, Greg W.; Meier, Rudolf; Lambkins, Christine; Pape, Thomas (2007). "Phylogeny and systematics of Diptera: Two decades of progress and prospects". Zootaxa. 1668: 565–590. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1668.1.27.