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Small
(2.0-4.0 mm) and slender dark acalyptrate flies. Wing with a row of
stronger costal spines, slightly darkened or indistinctly patterned,
costa interrupted immediately by the junction of R1.
Arista with very short pubescence, almost bare. Anepisternum bare.
The members of the family, comprising two genera in Europe, occur
from the lowlands to montane altitudes, mostly in non-forest
habitats, in both dry and humid environments. The larval development
is practically unknown: a larva supposed to belong to Campichoeta
punctum (Meigen, 1830) has been described by Hennig (1952).
In the PCV2 (Roháček
& Máca 1997), this family was treated as a subfamily of the
Diastatidae, the concept which is apparently outdated. The
Campichoetidae comprise only ten described species in two genera.
Five species occur in Europe; one additional species, known e.g.
from Turkey and Cyprus, may also occur in south-eastern Europe (Chandler
2007). Three species of this
family, all belonging to the genus Campichoeta Macquart, 1835
are currently known from the Czech Republic and Slovakia; they are all known from
each of the countries surveyed (Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia). There
is no change apart from the family rank since the PCV2 (Roháček
& Máca 1997). The occurrence of one more species, Euthychaeta
spectabilis (Loew, 1864), known from the Carpathians of the
Ukraine, is probable especially in Slovakia.
The monograph of the
Palaearctic species by Chandler (1987) is fundamental for the study of European species; the
paper by McAlpine (1962) is also useful.
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