Usiinae Becker, 1913

Greathead, D. J. & Evenhuis, N. L., 2001, Annotated keys to the genera of African Bombylioidea (Diptera: Bombyliidae; Mythicomyiidae), African Invertebrates 42 (1820), pp. 105-224 : 136-137

Usiinae Becker

Type genus: Usia Latreille, 1802 .

Evenhuis (1990 a) revised the world genera of the Usiinae and Phthiriinae , which he recognised as closely related, but Yeates (1994) found that they formed a monophyletic group and united them as a single subfamily, Usiinae . However, the characters proposed by Evenhuis (1990 a) for separating the two subfamilies (Evenhuis 1990 a) have been re-examined and are considered to justify the recognition of two distinct subfamilies ( Evenhuis & Greathead 1999).

The Usiinae are readily separated from the Phthiriinae by the first flagellomere having a subapical sulcus bearing a style and being without dorsal or ventral processes, and on the absence of vein M 2 (three posterior cells).