The Canthyloscelidae are a small family of midges closely related to the Scatopsidae.

Larvae are xylosaprophagous and live in the moist, rotting wood of stumps and fallen trees.

Fifteen described species live in New Zealand, North America, South America, Japan and Russia, and one is known from the Jurassic fossil record.

Originally considered to be two separate families, the Synneuridae and the Canthyloscelidae.

A phylogenetic reclassification by Amorim [3] has reduced the Synneurinae into a synonymy of Canthyloscelinae.