Calliphoridae

Checklist of Diptera of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Calliphoridae Brauer & Bergenstamm, 1889

Štěpán Kubík

Czech University of Agriculture, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Department of Zoology and Fishery, CZ-165 21 Praha 6 - Suchdol, Czech Republic, kubik@af.czu.cz

Adults are medium-sized to large robust flies with a body length from about 4.0 to 16.0 mm. Body colour variable, but most Central European species either black or metallic green to blue, often with silvery to yellowish microtomentum. Adult blow flies are important from a hygienic point-of-view. Their habit of visiting faeces, fresh or cooked meat, fish, dairy products, and wounds, make many species potential vectors of bacteria, viruses, protozoans and helminths. Several species have synanthropic tendencies. The larvae of Protocalliphora spp. feed on the blood of nestling birds. The known larvae of the Melanomyinae are parasitoids or predators upon living snails. Species of the genera Bellardia, Onesia and Pollenia are associated with earthworms. A few Palaearctic species are obligate producers of myiasis in various animals.

Altogether 113 species of the family Calliphoridae are known to occur in Europe, of which 57 are recorded from the Czech Republic and 55 from Slovakia. The identification of many Central European species is possible using the detailed monograph treating the Scandinavian fauna (Rognes 1991). The nomenclature follows the Fauna Europaea (Rognes 2004).

References

[1] Gregor F. 1987: Calliphoridae. In Ježek J. (ed.): Enumeratio insectorum Bohemoslovakiae. Check list of Czechoslovak insects II (Diptera). Acta faunistica entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 18: 291-293.

[2] Jacentkovský D. 1941: Kuklice (Tachinoidea, Diptera) Moravy a Slezska. Die Raupenfliegen (Tachinoidea) Mährens und Schlesiens. Acta Societatis Scientarum Naturalium Moravicae 13 (4): 1-64.

[3] Pape T., Kubík Š. & Barták M. 2001: Calliphoridae. In: Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in and Industrially Affected Region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov Environs). Folia Facultatis Scientiarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 479-484.

[4] Rognes K. 1991: Blowflies (Diptera, Calliphoridae) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Fauna entomologica Scandinavica 24: 1-272.

[5] Rognes K. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Calliphoridae In: Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.