Spheginobaccha

There are 18 myrmecophilous species in this genus. The genus is readily separated from other microdons by the incomplete metathoracic bridge, round/oval basoflagellomere, occiput with a dorsolateral crease, and other characters

The genus Spheginobaccha is a rare group of flower flies restricted to the Afrotropical and Oriental faunal regions. Nothing is known of their biology. The genus was revised by Thompson (1974) and since then, only one paper has been published on the Afrotropical species (Dirickx 1995), in which two new species were described. Hull (1949) was the first to include the genus in the Microdontinae. Thompson (1969: 77) excluded the genus from the Microdontinae and later placed the genus in an intermediate position in the Milesinae (now Eristalinae) (Thompson 1972). Thompson (1974: 258) placed the genus in its own tribe and as a basal clade in the subfamily Eristalinae. However, recent DNA sequence data placed the group within the subfamily Microdontinae (Ståhls et al. 2003) and as sister to all other microdontines.