Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Superfamily: Asiloidea
Family: Therevidae
Common name: Stiletto Flies. The name refers to narrow, tapering abdomen.
Therevidae is a family of Diptera Asiloidea commonly known as stiletto flies. The family contains about 1,600 described species worldwide with about 70 in New Zealand, including about 12 that are a threatened species. The larvae are predators of insect larvae live in arid and semi-arid regions with sandy soils.
Worldwide, the Stiletto Flies are poorly known and among the least understood of the flies. Yet this family of flies is critical to the sound functioning of arid and semiarid environments, including agro-ecosystems and forests in those zones. Individuals of this family have been infrequently collected because the adults are usually secretive, frequenting habitats rarely sampled by collectors.\
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