Syrphidae Latreille, 1802

Medium-sized to large (4.0-25.0 mm), abundant and conspicuous Diptera, often mimicking various aculeate Hymenoptera. Head without bristles; eyes usually holoptic in males, always dichoptic in females; ocelli present; antenna varying greatly in shape, consisting of three segments and a two-segmented arista or, rarely, stylus. Wing venation characterised by an unattached longitudinal spurious vein, running across radial-medial cross-vein. Almost all adults visit flowers and are able to hover motionless in flight and to move in various directions. The larvae are very variable in structure, habits and feeding mode. They exhibit three main feeding modes: entomophagy (mainly aphidophagy), phytophagy and saprophagy in a wide range of wet to aquatic habitats. The larvae of some species exhibit other special feeding modes, such as mycophagy, myrmecophily, coprophagy, or they live in wasp nests. Many species associated with endangered and vanishing habitats are the subject of active conservation measures, e.g. saproxylic saprophages (Speight 2008).

About 6000 species of Syrphidae in 188 genera are known worldwide (Thompson & Rotheray 1998). Although 870 species are currently listed as occurring in Europe, only 701 species are regarded as taxonomically stable and recognizable (Speight 2008). The rest of the recently validated taxa are of uncertain or unstable status and may be valid. A total of 425 species are listed in the present checklist: 401 from the Czech Republic (369 from Bohemia, 374 from Moravia), and 384 from Slovakia. Since the ECV1 (Mazánek 2006c), the number of species did not changed, one species was recorded from Bohemia for the first time and one species was removed from the checklist due to synonymy. Nevertheless all additions and corrections from PCV2 (Holinka & Mazánek 1997) are noted in the list of species. The species-richness of the Syrphidae in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is comparatively well known and the species list is almost complete.

A survey of our knowledge of the biology of Central European species is given by e.g. Speight (2008), Barkemeyer (1994) and Röder (1990). Almost all the species listed here may be identified with the key compiled by Veen (2004). For some genera it is useful to use the special keys recommended or compiled by Speight (2008). The nomenclature of the Fauna Europaea (Speight 2007) is used in the present checklist, with a few exceptions recommended recently by Speight (2008). The higher classification of the Syrphidae is in a state of flux and probably for this reason it was omitted from the Fauna Europaea (Speight 2007). Here the traditionally defined groups, as proposed by Thompson and Rotheray (1998) are followed.