brachyceran

Brachycera +‎ -an

brachyceran (plural brachycerans)

1. Any fly of the suborder Brachycera.
   • 1947, Edwin Francis Cook, The Evolution of the Head in the Larvae of the Diptera, page 11:

     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.

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

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

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

     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).