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Adults are mostly small or medium-sized flies
(6.0-12.0 mm), dark in colour, to be found on flowering plants. Head
positioned low on thorax, eyes holoptic in male, dichoptic in
female; antenna with three segments, third segment elongated,
blunt-tipped and with minute arista. Thorax and abdomen flattened
dorsally and with short, broad setae. Wing venation simple, R4+5
forked, discal cell with only two veins produced discally. The
larvae resemble those of Therevidae and live as predators, being
mainly found among wood-boring beetles, dermestids, termites and in
birds' nests.
The Scenopinidae is a small family. The basic
characteristics of the family were given by Kelsey (1969,
1981) and by Krivosheina (1997).
Members of the family are distributed in virtually all zoogeographic
regions, with a distinct preference for semi-desert and desert
areas. Twenty-four genera with more than 420 described species are
currently recognised worldwide (Kelsey
1981). Fifteen species known to occur in Europe (Carles-Tolrá
2007). Only three species are known from the Czech Republic (all
in Bohemia and Moravia) and from Slovakia (Bosák
1997).
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