Carnidae

The Carnidae are quite small (1-2 mm) black flies and probably due to their small size, they have not attracted a great degree of study. One notable exception is Carnus hemapterus Nitzsch, which is parasitic on birds, and was therefore the centre of several studies. Most species of the Carnidae are saprophagous and are associated with carrion, faeces, or bird's nests. Worldwide there are five genera with 88 extant and two fossil species. Check out the species pages by browsing through the classification!

Information on morphology, biology, classification, and distribution of the Carnidae, together with a key to genera can be found in Hennig (1937), Sabrosky (1987), and Papp (1998), with some information also present in Brake (2000). The Nearctic species of the genus Meoneura were revised by Sabrosky (1959), and the genus Carnus was revised by Grimaldi (1997).