Stilt Legged Flies

Adult micropezids (Stilt Flies) often live on foliage or tree trunks in forested areas and some are attracted to fresh mammal dung. Males of the wingless Badisis ambulans McAlpine run on flowering branches of Astartea (Myrtaceae) with the ants that they mimic. Larvae are little known but some live in underground plant parts or decaying wood. Those of Badisis ambulans live in the pitchers of the insectivorous plant Cephalotus in south-western Australia. This family contains wingless flies.

The main diagnostic features include: Flies elongate, often ant-like in appearance; mid and hind legs very elongate, foreleg smaller; postocellar bristles usually divergent or parallel; pedicel of antenna without terminal process; in male, sternite 5 usually with pair of pregenital lobes.