Campichoetidae Griffiths, 1972

Jan Máca

Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the CR, Nám. Přemysla Otakara 34, CZ-370 01 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; jan_maca@nature.cz

Small (2.0-4.0 mm) and slender dark acalyptrate flies. Wing with a row of stronger costal spines, slightly darkened or indistinctly patterned, costa interrupted immediately by the junction of R1. Arista with very short pubescence, almost bare. Anepisternum bare. The members of the family, comprising two genera in Europe, occur from the lowlands to montane altitudes, mostly in non-forest habitats, in both dry and humid environments. The larval development is practically unknown: a larva supposed to belong to Campichoeta punctum (Meigen, 1830) has been described by Hennig (1952).

In the previous version of the checklist, this family was treated as a subfamily of the Diastatidae, the concept which is apparently outdated. The Campichoetidae comprise only ten described species in two genera. Five species occur in Europe; one additional species, known e.g. from Turkey and Cyprus, may also occur in south-eastern Europe (Chandler 2004). Three species of this family, all belonging to the genus Campichoeta Macquart, 1835 are currently known from the Czech Republic; they are all known from each of the countries surveyed (Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia). There is no change apart from the family rank since the previous version of the checklist (Roháček & Máca 1997). The occurrence of one more species, Euthychaeta spectabilis (Loew, 1864), known from the Carpathians of the Ukraine, is probable especially in Slovakia.

The monograph of the Palaearctic species by Chandler (1987) is fundamental for the study of European species; the paper by McAlpine (1962) is also useful.

References

[1] Chandler P. J. 1987: The families Diastatidae and Campichoetidae (Diptera, Drosophiloidea) with a revision of Palaearctic and Nepalese species of Diastata Meigen. Entomologica scandinavica 18: 1- 50.

[2] Chandler P. J. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Campichoetidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[3] Hennig W. 1952: Die Larvenformen der Dipteren, 3. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 628 pp.

[4] McAlpine J. F. 1962: A revision of the genus Campichoeta Macquart (Diptera: Diastatidae). Canadian Entomologist 94: 1-10.

[5] Roháček J. & Máca J. 1997: Diastatidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check list of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum - Charles University Press, Praha, pp. 86-87.