Agromyzidae

Checklist of Diptera of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Agromyzidae Fallén, 1810

Miloš Černý¹, Miloslav Vála²

¹Halenkovice 1, CZ-763 63, Czech Republic; cerny.milos@centrum.cz

²Bukovany 166, CZ-772 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic; miloslav.vala@michem.cz

Very small to small acalyptrate flies with a wing length between slightly more than 1 mm and 6.5 mm but usually 2-3 mm. Body yellow or black, sometimes with a metallic greenish tinge. Third antennal segment short, rounded or elongated, sometimes pointed, conspicuously enlarged in some species. Orbital setae and vibrissae present, postocellars divergent. Genae narrow, rarely as deep as 0.75 of eye height. Thorax suboblong, somewhat arched, scutum with the usual dorsocentrals and acrostichals. Wing hyaline, with costa ending at tip of R4+5 or M1+2, Sc fused with R1 (Agromyzinae) or reduced as a separate and free-ending fold (Phytomyzinae), posterior crossvein sometimes absent. Female 7th abdominal tergite and sternite fused and chitinised to form a non-retractile sheath for the ovipositor.

The majority of larvae mine in leaves, but a relatively numerous group mines the surface or even the deeper tissue layers of the stems of different plants including bushes. Some larvae develop in seeds and fruits, and several species specialise on roots or form galls on branches. Most species are monophagous or oligophagous, and only rarely are they polyphagous (Spencer 1990). Some species are known as economically important pests (Spencer 1973), but on the other hand several species are used as biological agents for the control of certain plants.

About 900 species are known in Europe (Černý & Merz 2006) and 482 of them are included in the present checklist, with 450 from the Czech Republic (341 from Bohemia and 384 from Moravia) and 261 from Slovakia. Since the last published version of the checklist (Vála & Černý 1997), the number of species has been conspicuously increased: by 166 species in the Czech Republic (182 in Bohemia and 135 in Moravia) and 69 species in Slovakia. The agromyzid fauna is relatively well known in the Czech Republic but is distinctly under-investigated in Slovakia.

Virtually all recent identification keys are still based on the classic monograph of the Palaearctic species by Hendel (1931-36). The catalogue of the Palaearctic species was published by Papp (1984) and was updated by Spencer and Martinez (1987). The nomenclature used here follows the Fauna Europaea database (Martinez 2005).

References

[1] Bland K.P. 2000: James Hardy and some new synonyms for British Flies (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae, Agromyzidae and Anthomyiidae). Dipterists Digest 7: 9-14.

[2] Černý M. 1998: Two new species of Pseudonapomyza, with notes on distribution of the European species (Diptera: Agromyzidae). Folia Heyrovskyana 6 (1): 7-14.

[3] Černý M. 1999: Faunistic records. Agromyzidae. In Jedlička L. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 9, Slovak Entomological Society, Bratislava, pp. 200-207.

[4] Černý M. 2001a: Phytobia bohemica sp.n. from the Czech Republic (Diptera: Agromyzidae). Folia Heyrovskyana 9 (1): 57-63.

[5] Černý M. 2001b: Agromyzidae (Diptera) of the Zlín district (Czech Republic). In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaka Vol. 10. Acta Universitatis Carolinae-Biologica 45: 31-40.

[6] Černý M. 2001c: Příspěvek k poznání Agromyzidae (Diptera) Chráněné krajinné oblasti Bílé Karpaty. Sborník Přírodovědného klubu v Uherském Hradišti 6: 244-258.

[7] Černý M. 2005a: Faunistics records from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Agromyzidae. In Bitušík P. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 12. Acta Facultatis Ecologiae 12/Supll. 1: 156-158.

[8] Černý M., 2005b: A new species of Pseudonapomyza from Egypt, with notes on distribution of some other Palaearctic species of the genus (Diptera: Agromyzidae). In Kubík Š. & Barták M. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 11. Folia Facultatis Scientiarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 95-100.

[9] Černý M., Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005: Agromyzidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, pp. 285-300.

[10] Černý M., Barták M. & Roháček J. 2005: The species of the family Agromyzidae (Diptera) of the six peat-bogs in the Šumava Mts. (Czech Republic). In Kubík Š. & Barták M. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 11. Folia Facultatis Scientiarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 73-93.

[11] Černý M. & Farkač J. 2004: Faunistic records from Slovakia. Diptera: Agromyzidae. Entomological Problems 34: 112.