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How small is the worlds tiniest diptera (in mm)?

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Suggest Cecidomyiidae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecidomyiidae
many less than 1mm. long. World's smallest insects are in Hymenoptera See
http://ufbir.ifas.ufl.edu/chap38.htm>Home page for other interesting insect records :DRobert

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I am sure there are at least some Ceratopogonidae and Phoridae, too, that have similarly small species.

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So it seems Phoridae especially at (0.5mm) For a fascinating article on one effect of size on tiny insects read Life at Low Reynolds Number http://brodylab.eng.uci.edu/~jpbrody/reynolds/lowpurcell.html:p

Robert

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I forgot Psychodidae. And even Agromyzidae have very small species but probably not as small as the other families.

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Thanx for the link tips and suggestions. The people at Guinness World Records apparently has a bit of work left to do finding the tiniest fly B)

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And we both forgot Sphaeroceridae. Many species less than 1mm. and we must remember also poorly fed larvae become dwarf adults.
Robert

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I read there are an american expedition going to Antarctica study the chironomid Belgica antarctica which they think are interesting because it can stand cold weather. Perhaps this is the most cold restistant diptera!? Which diptera can stand most heat then? I guess there can be some species where larva live in hot springs or something like that, otherwise I guess it's hard to tell which place is hotter than the other ...

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Rather cute: Empidideicus hungaricus Thalhammer, 1911. This is a 0.7-1 mm large or small Bombyliidae. Not the smallest, nevertheless......

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I wondered about this, too. I have a phorid of 0.4mm that I will describe as the world's smallest fly. Anyone disagree?

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Ask Wayne Mathis and Chris Borkent. There are some really tiny ephydrids and gnats.

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Wayne lists the smallest ephydrids and nannodastiids at 0.7 mm, almost twice the size of my fly. Nevertheless, I'll ask. Thanks for the advice, Val.

Brian

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According to the revision by Wirth and Grogan, the smallest Ceratopogonini have wing length 0.4 mm.
http://books.goog...mp;lpg=PA1

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To Crex:
world famous I think is the chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki whose larva is able to resist a temperature from -270 C to +102 C (although this will not occur anywhere in nature, I hope :o
see for instance: http://www.nature...336a0.html