Atelestinae Hennig, 1970: 1, 3, 5, 6. Type genus Atelestus Walker, 1837.
Atelestidae Chvála, 1983: 85, 228.
The definition of this family is expanded here to include the new subfamily, Nemedininae. In the Atelestidae, the epipharyngeal blades are absent, female tergite 10 is also absent and males possess distinctively long processes of the gonocoxal apodemes and a shortened hypandrium (Sinclair & Shamshev 2003). Barták (2000) first proposed the assignment of Nemedina to the Atelestidae. Molecular analyses consistently assign the Atelestidae as the
sister group to the remaining Empidoidea (Collins & Wiegmann 2002a; Moulton & Wiegmann 2004). The following two subfamilies are recognized.
Nemedininae n. subfam.
Type genus Nemedina Chandler, 1981.
This is an ancient lineage that is represented by a single extant genus and several extinct genera (Grimaldi & Cumming 1999). The venation of this new subfamily is unique in the Empidoidea, characterized by the apex of cell br modified through the inclusion of a short vertical Rs and recurrent rm, with radial and medial veins closely approximated (Chandler 1981; Grimaldi & Cumming 1999; Sinclair & Arnaud 2001; Sinclair & Shamshev 2003). This distinctive venation also characterizes five extinct genera from Cretaceous ambers (Grimaldi & Cumming 1999). See the Taxon sampling section for further discussion.
Atelestinae
The Atelestinae are defined on the presence of the subapical surstyli and the Ushaped male tergite 8. The following extant genera are included in the Atelestinae: Acarteroptera Collin, Atelestus Walker, and Meghyperus Loew (Chvála 1983).