Scathophagidae

Checklist of Diptera of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Scathophagidae Robineau–Desvoidy, 1830

František Šifner

V štíhlách 1311, CZ–142 00 Praha 4 – Krč

Body-length 5.0-15.0 mm, ground-colour dark, black or yellow, frequently shining, entirely or partially grey dusted, strongly bristled and often yellow haired. The present status of the family is well-founded and unambiguous, with the following principal characters: lower calypter (squama alaris) greatly reduced and linear, head more or less spherical and eyes in both sexes widely separated, frontal vitta in both sexes wide and without a pair of crossed frontal bristles, second antennomere with distinct and complete dorsal longitudinal seam, venation of wing almost constant and without a strong costal spine at end of subcostal vein, katepisternum with one to three bristles, two pairs of gonapophyses. Bernasconi et al. (2000) addressed the problems of phylogeny by carrying out analyses based on COI and Cytb sequences, and they confirmed the monophyly of the Scathophagidae within the limits of the muscoid families.

The adults occur in sheltered and moist habitats of various types, forests, lowland to montane meadows, littoral vegetation, marshes, peat-bogs, etc. Adults are predaceous and hunt small insects, exceptionally consuming nectar in flowers, whilst others are coprophagous and perhaps saprophagous; several arctic species have often been observed on carrion. The eggs are attached to the surface of leaves or are inserted into plant tissues or other substrates. The larvae are phytophagous and mine in the leaves and stems particularly of monocotyledonous plants and, much more rarely, of dicotyledonous plants; other larvae are predaceous and saprophagous, living in soil or stagnant and running water; the larvae of some species occur in excrement, feeding mostly as predators. The larval development is only known for a limited number of species.

Altogether 160 species or subspecies are known to occur in Europe (Gorodkov 1986, Jong 2005); the validity of further species needs to be revised in the future. In the present checklist, 73 species are listed from the Czech Republic (72 in Bohemia and 58 in Moravia) and 56 from Slovakia (Barták 2004, Barták & Kubík 2006, Roháček & Barták 2006, Šifner 2003a, b, 2004, 2006a, b). The number of species known from individual European countries varies greatly and is dependent upon the level of faunistic and taxonomic research.

All the species from the Czech Republic and Slovakia can be reliably distinguishable by the structure of the male and female terminalia, and can be identified using the keys and figures by Šifner (2003a). Šifner (2003a) has compiled and summarised all the basic faunistic data. From the systematic point of view, two subfamilies, Scathophaginae and Delininae (Collin 1958), and eight tribes (Šifner 2003a) are recognised.

References

[1] Barták M. 2004: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Diptera, Scathophagidae. In Bitušík P. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca, Vol.12. Acta Facultatis Ecologicae 12 (Suppl. 1), p. 160.

[2] Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2006: Scathophagidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. Česká zemědělská Universita v Praze, pp. 362-365.

[3] Bernasconi M.V., Valsangiacomo C., Piffaretti J.-C. & Ward P.I. 2000: Phylogeny of the Scathophagidae (Diptera, Calyptratae) Based on Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 16: 308-315.

[4] Collin J.E. 1958: A short synopsis of the British Scatophagidae (Diptera). Transaction of the Society for British Entomology 13: 37-56.

[5] Gorodkov K.B. 1986: Family Scatthophagidae. In Soós A. & Papp L. (eds): Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera, Vol. 11. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 11-41.

[6] Jong H. de 2005: Fauna Europaea: Scathophagidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.2, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[7] Nelson J.M. & Šifner F. 2000: A redescription of Norellisoma flavicorne (Meigen, 1826) (Diptera, Scathophagidae), with an accout of its biology and notes on other members of the genus. Entomologist´s Monthly Magazine 136: 31-35.

[8] Roháček J. & Barták M. 2006: Faunistic records. Scathophagidae. In Kinkorová J. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca, Vol. 13. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 50: 157.

[9] Šifner F. 2000: Three new species of the genus Scathophaga (Diptera, Scathophagidae). Folia Heyrovskyana 8: 193-196.

[10] Šifner F. 2003a: The family Scathophagidae (Diptera) of the Czech and Slovak Republics (with notes on selected Palaearctic taxa). Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae. Series B, Natural History 59: 1-90.

[11] Šifner F. 2003b: Two new species of the family Scathophagidae (Diptera) from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Journal of the National Museum, Natural History Series (Prague) 72: 77-80.

[12] Šifner F. 2004: Three new species of scathophagid flies from the Palaearctic region with a description of male Hexamitocera martineki (Diptera, Scathophagidae). Journal of the National Museum, Natural History Series (Prague) 73: 105-110.

[13] Šifner F. 2006a: Norellisoma jelineki sp. nov. – a new species from the Czech Republic (Diptera: Scathophagidae). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Prague 46: 193-196.

[14] Šifner F. 2006b: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Diptera, Scathophagidae. Entomofauna carpathica 18: 33.