Lonchopteridae Curtis, 1839

Miroslav Barták

Czech University of Agriculture, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Department of Zoology and Fishery, CZ-165 21 Praha 6 - Suchdol, Czech Republic; bartak@af.czu.cz

The adults are rather small (length of body 2.0-5.0 mm), strongly bristled flies, yellow to brownish-black, often yellowish-brown with a darker pattern. Wings conspicuously pointed, with sexually dimorphic venation. The larva is somewhat fusiform, narrowed anteriorly and more blunt posteriorly, with three pairs of long bristle-like processes, two pairs inserted on thorax and the third on the last abdominal tergite. The larvae are saprophagous, microphagous or, probably, mycetophagous. For a more datailed description of the larva and puparium, see Drake (1996), Peterson (1987). Adults are common in moist places, alongside streams or ponds and in deciduous forests, or even in dry meadows. Further details on the adult morphology and biology have been given by Barták (1998), Drake (1996), Peterson (1987).

Altogether 13 species are known to occur in Europe (Barták 2004); 9 are listed in the present checklist (9 in the Czech Republic, 9 in Bohemia, 9 in Moravia, and 9 in Slovakia). Since the last version of checklist the number of species has not increased. The faunistics of both Czech and Slovak species are probably completely known.

The basic characteristics of the family are given by Barták (1998) and Peterson (1987). Identification keys to all the Central European species are in Barták (1986) and Bährmann and Bellstedt (1988). The nomenclature of the Fauna Europaea (Barták 2004) is followed in the present checklist.

References

[1] Barták M. 1986: The Czechoslovak species of Lonchopteridae. In Olejníček J. & Spitzer K. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 4. Jihočes. muz., České Budějovice, přír.vědy, pp. 61-69.

[2] Barták M. 1998: Lonchopteridae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Vol. 3. Science Herald, Budapest, pp 13- 16.

[3] Barták M. 2004: Fauna Europa: Lonchopteridae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[4] Barták M. 2006: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Lonchopteridae. In Kinkorová J. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca, Vol. 13. Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Biologica 50: 145-146.

[5] Bährmann R. & Bellstedt R. 1988: Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen zur Vorkommen der Lonchopteriden auf dem Gebiet der DDR, mit einer Bestimmungstabelle der Arten. Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift, N.F. 35 (4-5): 265-279.

[6] Drake C.M. 1996: The larva and habitat of Lonchoptera nigrociliata (Diptera: Lonchopteridae). Dipterists Digest 3: 28-31.

[7] Peterson B.V. 1987: Lonchopteridae. In McAlpine J.F. et al. (eds): Manual of Nearctic Diptera, Vol. 2. Agric. Can. Monograph, No. 28, pp. 675-680.