Aulacigastridae Duda, 1924

Jan Máca¹, Jindřich Roháček²

¹Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the CR, Nám. Přemysla Otakara 34, CZ-37001 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; jan_maca@nature.cz

²Department of Entomology, Silesian Museum, Tyršova 1, CZ-746 01 Opava, Czech Republic; rohacek@szmo.cz

Small, about 2.0-4.0 mm long, dark microtomentose flies with pale tarsi. Eyes red, anteriorly with greenish bands in living specimens. C twice broken; the second costal break situated at the junction of fully developed Sc and some distance before the junction of R1. Postocellar and interfrontal setae absent, ocellar setae reduced, orbital setae two, vibrissa present. Pedicel without dorsal cleft. Wing with basal cross-vein (bM-Cu) absent or very thin. Gonostylus fused with epandrium, hypandrial bridge present. Female with 3 spermathecae. The larvae are very slender, with ventral locomotory pads and caudal end with a long respiratory tube. They develop in tree sap exuding from the wounds of various tree species and adults can be found resting around the larval breeding substrate.

The taxonomic limits of the family Aulacigastridae have recently been disputed. We agree with the separation of the family Neminidae D. K. McAlpine, 1983; according to this new concept, the family Aulacigastridae includes only 2 genera, Aulacigaster Macquart, 1835 and Curiosimusca Rung, Mathis & Papp, 2005 (Rung et al. 2005). Four species, all belonging to the genus Aulacigaster Macquart, 1835, are recorded in Europe and adjacent island areas including the Macaronesian subregion (Carles-Tolrá 2004). Only one species was listed from the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the previous version of checklist (Máca 1997), but since then another species has been found and recorded as Aulacigaster neoleucopeza Mathis & Freidberg, 1994 from Slovakia (Roháček 2001) and Bohemia (Roháček 2004); when it was also found in Moravia (Roháček et al. 2005), its name was corrected  following Kassebeer (2001). The Palaearctic species of Aulacigaster were revised by Papp (1998a) who also treated the family in detail in the Manual of the Palaearctic Diptera (Papp 1998b). Rung et al. (2005) also discussed the systematics of the Aulacigastridae and gave the family a new restricted definition.

References

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

[2] Kassebeer C.F. 2001: Die einheimischen Arten der Gattung Aulacigaster Macquart, 1835 (Diptera, Aulacigastridae). Dipteron 4: 23-32.

[3] Máca  J. 1997: Aulacigastridae. In Chvála, M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, p. 79.

[4] Papp L. 1998a: The Palaearctic species of Aulacigaster Macquart (Diptera, Aulacigastridae). Acta zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 43 (1997): 225-234.

[5] Papp L. 1998b: 3.23. Family Aulacigastridae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 279-284.

[6] Roháček J. 2001: Faunistic records: Aulacigastridae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 10. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 45: 197-198.

[7] Roháček J. 2004: Aulacigastridae. Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics: Diptera. In: Kubík Š. & Barták M. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca 11. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 346.

[8] Roháček J., Kubík Š. & Barták M. 2005: Aulacigastridae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its environs, Česká zemědělská univerzita, Praha, pp. 305-306.

[9] Rung A., Mathis W.N. & Papp L. 2005: Curiosimusca, gen. nov., and three new species in the family Aulacigastridae from the Oriental Region (Diptera: Opomyzoidea). Zootaxa 1009: 21-36.