Ulidiidae Macquart, 1835

Jindřich Roháček

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

Small to large (2.5-11.0 mm), moderately robust flies, variable in colour, from partly yellow to black, sometimes grey microtomentose or shining metallic. Head shape variable, arista bare to long haired. Ocelli present, ocellars developed, postvertical (postocellar) setae parallel or divergent, 1-2 fronto-orbital setae and scattered interfrontal setulae present, vibrissae absent; however, in some species all cephalic setae may be reduced or absent. Tibiae usually without dorsopreapical setae. Wing mostly dark banded or maculated, or darkened at tip, rarely clear or unicolourous. Costa often continuous or with only a humeral break; subcosta complete; R1 setulose or bare, cells bm and cup present, the latter often cuspidate. Distiphallus very long, spirally coiled, bare or spinulose. Female postabdomen with 7th segment modified into a sclerotized oviscape; 8th tergosternite forming the basal part of aculeus and flexibly jointed to the cap-like cercal unit. The larvae are mostly saprophagous and develop in rotting matter, under bark or in dung; some apparently are phytophagous. The adults live in marshland habitats, woodland areas, sandy, salty or steppe meadows, and often occur on the leaves of shrubs, tree trunks, on flowers, and also on excrement and manure heaps. 

Following Kameneva and Korneyev (1994, 2006), the current concept of the Ulidiidae also includes the subfamily Otitinae, which has often been treated as a separate family in the past, most recently by e.g. Greve (1998). In the previous version of this checklist, the Otitidae and Ulidiidae were listed separately (Martinek 1997, Zuska 1997); now they are combined, following the Fauna Europaea (Kameneva & Greve 2004). Altogether 105 species are known from Europe (Kameneva & Greve 2004) and 33 are listed in the present checklist (27 in the Czech Republic, 22 in Bohemia, 26 in Moravia, and 31 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species in the Czech Republic has increased by 2 (3 in Bohemia, 2 in Moravia) and 1 species has been added for Slovakia. Kameneva and Korneyev (1994, 2006) diagnosed the family; but there is no contemporary treatment of the whole European fauna nor any comprehensive study of the Czech or Slovak species. However, the latter are relatively well known thanks to the many papers by Martinek (for references, see Barták (2001) and Martinek and Barták (2001)). The Central European species can be identified using the keys by Soós (1980), Richter (1970a, 1970b), Clements (1990), Andersson (1991) and Merz (1996a, 1996b), supplemented by Carles-Tolrá (1998). The nomenclature used here follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Kameneva & Greve 2004).

References

[1] Andersson H. 1991: Revision of Swedish Homalocephala Zetterstedt (Diptera, Otitidae). Entomologisk Tidskrift 112(1-2): 27-32.

[2] Barták M. 2001: Ulidiidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds):  Diptera in an industrially affected region (north-western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov environs), II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 293-295.

[3] Carles-Tolrá M. 1998: Description of a new Otites species from Slovakia (Diptera, Ulidiidae, Otitinae). Studia dipterologica 5(1): 58-60.

[4] Clements D.K. 1990: Provisional key to the Otitidae and Platystomatidae of the British Isles. Dipterists Digest 6: 32-41.

[5] Greve L. 1998: 3.12. Family Otitidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 185-192.

[6] Kameneva E. P. 1997: Status of Systata Loew (Diptera: Ulidiidae: Otitinae). Journal of the Ukrainian entomological Society 3(1): 49-54.

[7] Kameneva E.P. & Greve L. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Ulidiidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[8] Kameneva E.P. & Korneyev V.A. 1994: Holarctic genus Pseudoseioptera Stackelberg (Diptera: Ulidiidae (= Otitidae). Part 1. Phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic position. Journal of the Ukrainian entomological Society 1(2)(1993): 65-72.

[9] Kameneva E.P. & Korneyev V.A. 2006: Myennidini, a new tribe of the subfamily Otitinae (Diptera: Ulidiidae), with discussion of the suprageneric classification of the family. In Freidberg A. (ed.): Biotaxonomy of Tephritoidea. Lazer Publ., Jerusalem, pp. 493-582.

[10] Martinek V. 1997. Otitidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum, Charles University Press, Prague, p. 70.

[11] Martinek V. 2001: New or scarce Acalyptrate flies (Diptera) found in the forests of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Journal of Forest Science 47(11): 523-528.

[12] Martinek V. & Barták M. 2001: Otitidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds):  Diptera in an industrially affected region (north-western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov environs), II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 289-292.

[13] Merz B. 1996a: Systematik und Faunistik der gattung Herina (Diptera, Otitidae) der Schweiz. Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 69: 329-344.

[14] Merz B. 1996b: Zur Faunistik der Pyrgotidae, Platystomatidae und Ulidiidae (= Otitidae) (Diptera, Tephritoidea) der Schweiz mit spezieller Berücksichtigung von Otites Latreille. Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 69: 405-416.

[15] Merz, B. 2002. A revision of the Herina lugubris species group (Diptera, Ulidiidae), with the description of two new species. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 109: 407-431.

[16] Merz B. & Roháček J. 2005: New records of Homalocephala biumbrata (Wahlberg, 1839) (Diptera, Ulidiidae, Ulidiinae) from Western and Central Europe. Studia dipterologica 12(1): 8-9.

[17] Richter V.A. 1970a: Sem. Otitidae. In Bei-Bienko G.Y. (ed.): Opredelitel nasekomykh evropeiskoi chasti SSSR. Vol. 5, Part 2, Nauka, Leningrad, pp. 123-130.

[18] Richter V.A. 1970b: Sem. Ulidiidae. In Bei-Bienko G. Y. (ed.): Opredelitel nasekomykh evropeiskoi chasti SSSR. Vol. 5, Part 2, Nauka, Leningrad, pp. 130-132.

[19] Roháček J. 1999: Faunistic records. Ulidiidae. In Jedlička L. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaka 9. Slovak Entomological Society, Bratislava, p. 199.

[20] Soós Á. 1980: Otitidae-Foltoslegyek. Fauna Hungariae 143, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 67-93.

[21] Zuska J. 1997. Ulidiidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum, Charles University Press, Prague, p. 70.