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The Pleciidae are classified as the subfamily Pleciinae of the
Bibionidae in many recent works (e.g.
Skartveit 1997,
2007) but in our work we follow the ranking of Pleciidae as a
separate family (e.g.
Krivosheina 1981,
Martinovský 1997,
Zeegers 2002). The adults are rather large flies, with rather
elongate legs. Fore legs normal, without thickened parts or spines
or enlarged apical spurs. Antennomeres short, hardly longer than
wide, and palpi long, four-segmented. Wings darkened, without
distinct stigma, all veins uniformly pigmented, vein Rs forked.
Wings reduced in European species, more so in males than in females.
Approximately 280 species are known worldwide. Some twenty species are
recorded from the Palaearctic region, mostly from the eastern part (Krivosheina 1981). In Europe the family is represented by only one
indigenous, widely distributed species, Penthetria funebris
Meigen, 1804 (Skartveit
2007). It has been recorded from both the Czech Republic and
Slovakia (Martinovský 1997). In 2004 (Fitzgerald
& Werner 2004), the finding of a
non-indigenous, North American species, Penthetria heteroptera
(Say, 1823), was recorded from Germany. It was probably imported
with garden soil or compost.
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