Tephritoidea are generally rather hairy flies with setae weakly differentiated.

They have the following synapomorphies: male tergum 6 strongly reduced or absent; surstylus or medial surstylus with toothlike prensisetae (in Piophilidae only in one genus); female sterna 4-6 with anterior rodlike apodemes; female tergosternum 7 consisting of two portions, the anterior forming a tubular oviscape and the posterior consisting of two pairs of longitudinal taeniae.

[10] Tephritoidea includes plant pests in the families Tephritidae, Lonchaeidae and Ulidiidae.

[11][12] In these pest species, adult females lay their eggs on plant tissues, which hatch into larvae that begin feeding.

[2] The first Tephritoidea are believed to have evolved in the mid-Paleocene, approximately 59 million years ago.