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Minute to small (0.5-5.0 mm), rather stout, usually yellow, more
rarely grey to blackish flies. Head rounded, with depressed face,
two to six fronto-orbital setae, postvertical (postocellar) setae small and
convergent. Thorax with one humeral, two notopleural, one posthumeral, one to
six
dorsocentral, two (pairs) long scutellar setae (additional small
scutellar setulae only in some genera). Wing unicolourous, hyaline.
Costa extended to M, with a subcostal break; subcosta complete,
ending close to R1; cell bm closed, cell cup
short. Tibiae without dorsal preapical setae. Male genitalia
variable; female postabdomen with two spermathecae. The larvae are
saprophagous, developing in the nests of birds and in bat guano, and
some species also in rotting wood debris. Most species are
thermophilous; species of Aphaniosoma and Gymnochiromyia
preferentially occur in saltmarshes and semi-arid habitats and are
frequent on flowering vegetation. Chyromya species and also
Gymnochiromyia inermis seem to be associated with open
deciduous woodland.
A total of 61 species has been recorded in Europe (Ebejer
2005,
2007,
Gibbs 2007);
nine are listed in the present checklist: eight in the Czech
Republic (eight in Bohemia, five in Moravia), and five in Slovakia. Since
PCV2, the number of species has not changed
in either the Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) or in Slovakia.
The family is best known in Bohemia (Czech Republic); some
additional species, particularly of the genus Aphaniosoma,
can certainly be expected to be found in Moravia and Slovakia. The
family was characterised by Wheeler (1998)
who also gave a key to Palaearctic genera. There is no
identification tool for all the European species; species of the
European genera can be determined by means of Gibbs (2007)
and Andersson (1971,
1976
– Chyromya), Ebejer (1998a
– Gymnochiromyia) and Ebejer (1998b,
2005
– Aphaniosoma). The species occurring in the Czech Republic
and Slovakia have been treated faunistically by Ebejer and Roháček (1995),
who also summarized the earlier records. For references to papers
recording Chyromyidae from the Czech Republic after 1995, see Ebejer
et al. (2001).
The nomenclature adopted here follows that in the Fauna Europaea
(Ebejer
2007).
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