Tanypezidae Andersen, 1876

Jindřich Roháček

Department of Entomology, Silesian Museum, Tyršova 1, CZ-746 01 Opava, Czech Republic; rohacek@szmo.cz

Medium-sized (5.0-8.0 mm), slender, shining black flies; with silvery microtomentose patches on head and sides of thorax in Tanypeza Fallén, 1820. Head rounded-hemispherical, frons narrow, in male distinctly narower than in female, antenna small, arista pubescent, interfrontal setulae and vibrissa absent. Legs long and slender, tibiae without dorsopreapical setae. Wing narrow, hyaline, unspotted; C with a weak subcostal break; Sc complete; R1 setulose, R4+5 recurved distally and ending close to M, cells bm and cup present, the latter closed by a knee-like bent CuA2, A1 long, ending near wing margin. Gonostyli fused to epandrium; hypandrium complex but aedeagus simple, rod-shaped; epiphallus well developed. Terminal segments of female postabdomen modified into a telescopic ovipositor with cerci dorsally fused; 2 simple spermathecae and 1 distinct ventral receptacle. The larvae are saprophagous and probably develop in rotting wood or other plant detritus under natural conditions. Adults can be found on low vegetation in wet deciduous forests, usually on the banks of rivers and brooks.

Only 1 species, Tanypeza longimana Fallén, 1820, is known to occur in Europe (Roháček 2004) and the whole of the Palaearctic region (Roháček 1998). Although uncommon, it has also been recorded from the Czech Republic (both Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovakia, and was listed in the previous version of the checklist. The family is characterized in detail by Roháček (1998), and its only Palaearctic species can be identified with all the available keys to dipterous families. The nomenclature follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Roháček 2004).

References

[1] Roháček J. 1998: 3.9. Family Tanypezidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 165-171.

[2] Roháček J. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Tanypezidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.