brachyceran

plural brachycerans

1. Any fly of the suborder Brachycera.

   The fossil history of Chironominae and aquatic higher brachycerans is nearly unknown, and reported records in the literature need to be substantiated.

   2006, A.P. Rasnitsyn, History of Insects, page 418

   2 more examples

   The investigations carried out by Bischoff on a considerable series of brachyceran heads led him to the conclusion that the mouth hooks of these Brachycera are the result of fusion of the maxillae with the mandibles.

   1947, Edwin Francis Cook, The Evolution of the Head in the Larvae of the Diptera, page 11

   Unlike the proboscides of Lower brachyceran lineages, which are continuous with the head capsule and tend to dangle (Matsuda 1965), the proboscides of most cyclorrhaphan species are suspended by a membranous region and divided into three functional parts: the basiproboscis (rostrum), medioproboscis (haustellum), and distiproboscis (labellum), each of which is defined by internal muscles but also shares muscles with the other regions (Graham-Smith 1930; Lall and Davies 1971).

   2012, Brian Wiegmann, The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, page 225