Sarcophagidae Macquart, 1834

Small to large (2.0-25.0 mm) flies, often light grey with three dark stripes on mesonotum and with a checkerboard pattern on abdomen, but also yellow or entirely shining black, never metallic. Arista bare to plumose, wing vein M1 bent forward, meron with strong setae, subscutellum flat, posterior thoracic spiracle with an opercular posterior fringe, and lower calypter with inner margin parallel to scutellum for some distance before turning laterally. Females ovo-larviparous, with eggs incubated in a bilobed pouch from the common oviduct. Larvae often with posterior spiracles recessed in a deep concavity. For more details on the adult morphology, consult Pape (1998).

The biology of the Sarcophagidae varies greatly between individual taxa and may be very different even among species of a single genus. Most Miltogramminae are kleptoparasites of solitary aculeate Hymenoptera. The Paramacronychiinae contain species with more diverse feeding habits, the larvae being predators, saprophages or parasitoids, and a few species of the genus Wohlfahrtia are well known as either facultative or obligatory producers of myiasis in man and other mammals including domesticated fur animals and livestock. The Sarcophaginae generally exploit small carrion such as dead snails, dead or moribund insects, or small vertebrate corpses. Several Sarcophaginae are insect parasitoids (notably the genus Blaesoxipha) or predators of snails. A few, often widespread or cosmopolitan species, may utilize larger vertebrate corpses, faeces, and various kinds of organic debris (Pape et al.1998). The family was monographically treated in Central Europe by Povolný and Verves (1997).

Altogether 309 species are known to occur in Europe (Pape 2007); 144 of these are listed in the present checklist: 128 in the Czech Republic (91 in Bohemia, 123 in Moravia), and 128 in Slovakia. Since the PCV2 (Povolný 1997b), the number of species has increased by 8 (Pape 2007, Povolný 1999, Richet et al. 2005, Whitmore et al. 2009, Kejval 2009). The faunistics of both Moravia and Slovakia is more thoroughly studied than the poorly known fauna of Bohemia.

The basic characteristics of the family were given by Pape (1998). The Czech species may be identified using the key and figures in Povolný and Verves (1997). The nomenclature follows that of the Fauna Europaea (Pape 2007).