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Small,
about 2.0-4.0 mm long, dark microtomentose flies with pale tarsi.
Eyes red, anteriorly with greenish bands in living specimens. C
twice broken; the second costal break situated at the junction of
fully developed Sc and some distance before the junction of R1.
Postocellar and interfrontal setae absent, ocellar setae reduced,
orbital setae two, vibrissa present. Pedicel without dorsal cleft.
Wing with basal cross-vein (bM-Cu) absent or very thin. Gonostylus
fused with epandrium, hypandrial bridge present. Female with three
spermathecae. The larvae are very slender, with ventral locomotory
pads and caudal end with a long respiratory tube. They develop in
tree sap exuding from the wounds of various tree species and adults
can be found resting around the larval breeding substrate.
The taxonomic limits of the family Aulacigastridae have recently
been disputed. We agree with the separation of the family Neminidae
D. K. McAlpine, 1983; according to this new concept, the family
Aulacigastridae includes only two genera, Aulacigaster Macquart,
1835 and Curiosimusca Rung, Mathis & Papp, 2005 (Rung
et al. 2005). Four species, all belonging to the genus
Aulacigaster Macquart, 1835, are recorded in Europe and adjacent
island areas including the Macaronesian subregion (Carles-Tolrá
2007). Only one species
was listed from the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the PCV2 (Máca
1997), but since then another species has been found and
recorded as Aulacigaster neoleucopeza Mathis & Freidberg,
1994 from Slovakia (Roháček
2001) and Bohemia (Roháček
2004); when it was also found in Moravia (Roháček
et al. 2005), its name was corrected following Kassebeer (2001). No changes in species number have
been recorded since the ECV1. The Palaearctic species of Aulacigaster were revised by Papp
(1998a)
who also treated the family in detail in the Manual of the
Palaearctic Diptera (Papp
1998b). Rung et al. (2005)
also discussed the systematics of the Aulacigastridae and gave the
family a new restricted definition.
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