Taxonomic position of Order Diptera in Egypt

According to the changes occurred in the classification of the categories of the order Diptera due to the recent studies which based on modern taxonomy methods, using molecular characters, phylogeny and cladistic analysis, the present work presenting the taxonomic position and higher classification of order Diptera in Egypt based on the most recent investigation made with modern methods, together with morphological characters, to update and correct the Egyptian list of the order Diptera.


INTRODUCTION
Order Diptera (True flies) is one of the major and most important orders of insect, comprising nearly 240.000 species distributed allover the world except in the Antarctica.The order includes many familiar fly species of highly economic importance as pests of plants and or vectors of dangerous diseases for man and Animal.The earliest fly fossil was known from the Upper Triassic of the Mesozoic geological period, some 225 million years ago (Evenhuis, 1995).Since that time they have diversified to become one of the largest groups of organisms.There have been about 150,000 species of flies formally described by scientists; thus about 1 in every 10 animals described is a fly.A greater number of species await description and most of these will be found in environments that remain to be studied intensively, such as tropical forests.
Many authors in different parts of the world worked on the various aspects of the order, including comparative morphology, taxonomy, biology….etc.Of the famous works, Verrall (1901and 1909), Mc Alpine et al. (1981-1987), Oldroyd et al. (1949), Hindel (1928, 1936-37), Lindner (1924-74), Curran (193), Cole (1969), Courtney (1995), Friedrich and Tautz (1997), and Wiegmann et al.In Egypt the order Diptera as listed and classified by Steyskal and El-Bialy (1967) is represented by 1339 species belonging to 64 families.The classification of the order in particular the higher categories was a matter of change a long with the classification history of the order.
The present work aimed at presenting the most recent taxonomic position and higher classification of the order based on most recent taxonomic studies to update and correct the Egyptian list of Diptera.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The theoretical part of this study depended mainly upon reviewing the literature, text books and taxonomic catalogues of order Diptera, together with recent investigations that concern with the higher classification of the order.On the other hand the practical part was carried out by examining the referral insect collections in Egypt, i.e. the available Depterous collections such as: Ministry of Agriculture Ayman M. Ebrahim 126 Collection, Dokki, Giza (M.), the Faculty of Science, Cairo University Collection, Giza, (F.), the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University Collection, Cairo, (A.S.), the Entomological Society of Egypt Collection, Cairo, (S.), and the Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University Collection, Cairo, (AZ).To revise and record the representative families of this order in Egypt.Data concern with the classification and updated taxonomic position of the higher categories of the order Diptera are presented in a table including super families and families of the palearctic region, referring to the representative families in Egypt.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The Diptera are divided into two suborders, the Nematocera and Brachycera.The Nematocera include generally small, delicate insects with long antennae such as mosquitoes, crane-flies, midges and their relatives.The Brachycera includes more compact, robust flies with short antennae.In older classifications two Divisions were recognised in the Brachycera, the Orthorrhapha and Cyclorrhapha.The "Orthorrhapa" includes brachyceran flies with a simple, obtect pupa, such as horse flies and robber flies, and the Cyclorrhapha comprise brachyceran flies with a pupa enclosed in a hardened puparium.The Cyclorrhapha are further divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of the ptilinum and associated fissure on the head.The ptilinum is a sac which is everted during the emergence of the adult fly to assist in breaking free of the puparium.The Aschiza lack the ptilinum whereas it is present in the Schizophora.The following table showing palearctic families of order Diptera according to their taxonomic status.Generally there are two accepted suborders of Diptera, the Nematocera which are usually recognized by their elongated bodies and feathery antennae and the Brachycera tend to have a more roundly proportioned body and very short antennae.A more recent classification has been proposed, in which, the Nematocera is split into two suborders, the Archidiptera and the Eudiptera, but this has not yet gained widespread acceptance among dipterists.
1. Suborder Nematocera (24 families, 14 of them are recorded in Egypt) characterized by having long antennae, pronotum distinct from mesonotum.In Nematocera, larvae are either eucephalic or hemicephalic and often aquatic.2. Suborder Brachycera (81 families, 51 of them are recorded in Egypt) characterized by having short antennae, the pupa is inside a puparium formed from the last larval skin.Brachycera are generally robust flies with larvae having reduced mouthparts.
In addition to the Family Diopsidae which add to number of Egyption families which recorded in Steyskal list to exceeded the number of families from 64 to 65 Families.

position of Order Diptera in Egypt 127 Suborder
: Brachycera -Short horned Flies (Including Cyclorrhapha and Orthorrhapha in part)