Asteiidae Rondani, 1856

 

Jindřich Roháček

Department of Entomology, Silesian Museum, Tyršova 1, CZ-746 01 Opava, Czech Republic; rohacek@szmo.cz

 

Minute to small (1.0-3.0 mm), delicate, often weakly sclerotised flies. Cephalic chaetotaxy reduced, with only 0-2 orbital setae. Antenna with arista having long zigzag rays, or only minute cilia, rarely completely absent. Thoracic chaetotaxy also reduced as a rule. Legs small, without conspicuous setae. Wing relatively narrow, with somewhat reduced venation. C without breaks; Sc faded distally, not reaching costa. R4+5 and M convergent apically; basal (bm-cu) cross-vein, anal (cup) cell and vein A1 absent. Abdomen usually weakly sclerotised. Gonostyli fused with epandrium, symmetrical to strongly asymmetrical. Aedeagus tripartite, consisting of phallophore, mesophallus and distiphallus, the latter long and thin, sometimes coiled. Female terminalia simple, cerci short, usually two spermathecae present. Biology poorly known. The Central European species belong to two, ecologically different groups. Leiomyza species have mycetophagous larvae (Papp 1998) developing in the sporocarps of fungi, and occur chiefly in woodlands. Asteia species are considered to be (phyto)saprophagous as larvae; adults appear to be associated with shrubby or grassy habitats, often occurring on flowers. The life-habits of Astiosoma rufifrons Duda, 1927, are unknown. The species is characterised by the fumatropic behaviour of the adults, which are attracted to wood ash after bonfires, especially during the evening (Chandler 1978).

Altogether 18 species in four genera are known to occur in Europe and the adjacent island areas (Carles-Tolrá 2004); 8 are listed in the present checklist (8 in the Czech Republic, 7 in Bohemia, 8 in Moravia, and 7 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has increased by 1 in the Czech Republic (Moravia only, added by Roháček et al. 2005). The Asteiidae are characterised in detail by Papp (1998), who has also provided a modern key to Palaearctic genera. The Central European species can be identified using Chandler (1978) and Merz (1996). There is no comprehensive treatment of the Asteiidae in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the published faunistic data are scattered in a number of papers: see Roháček and Barták (2001) for a review. The nomenclature used here follows that in Papp (1984) and the Fauna Europaea (Carles-Tolrá 2004).

 

References

[1] Carles-Tolrá M. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Asteiidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[2] Chandler P. 1978: A revision of the British Asteiidae (Diptera) including two additions to the British list. Proceedings and Transactions of the British Entomological and Natural History Society 11: 23-34.

[3] Merz,  B. 1996: Die Asteiidae (Diptera) der Schweiz. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 103: 893-904.

[4] Papp L. 1984: Family Asteiidae. In Soós Á. & Papp L. (eds): Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 10. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 63-66.

[5] Papp L. 1998: 3.25. Family Asteiidae. In: Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 295-303.

[6] Roháček J. & Barták M. 2001: Asteiidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara. J. (eds): Diptera in an Industrially Affected Region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov Environs), II. Folia Facultatis Scientarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 381-384.

[7] Roháček J., Kubík Š. & Barták M. 2005: Asteiidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, Praha, pp. 309-311.