Conopidae Latreille, 1802

Milan Chvála

Department of Zoology, Charles University Prague, CZ-128 44 Praha 2, Czech Republic; mchvala@natur.cuni.cz

The family Conopidae includes small to medium-sized cyclorrhaphous species with a body length from 2.5 to 20 mm, and in general they are very good fliers. The small species are usually inconspicuously blackish-grey, but most of the species are brightly coloured, black and yellow or russet flies, imitating the form and colouring of their hosts, mostly wasps or bees. The larvae of the Conopidae are endoparasites of wasps, bees and occasionally of grasshoppers and locusts. The adults, which have an unusually large head and often a long proboscis, may be frequently found on flowers in the vicinity of the nests of their hosts.

Altogether 84 species are listed from Europe in the first version of the Fauna Europaea, and 57 of these are included in the present checklist; the number of species has increased by 2 (1 in Bohemia, 1 in Slovakia) compared with the previous 1997 version. Altogether 53 species are listed from the Czech Republic (44 in Bohemia and 49 in Moravia) and 48 species from Slovakia, of which 4 are known only in Slovakia. There are only a few new records in the present new version of the checklist: 2 records are new for Bohemia and Slovakia, and 1 for Moravia.

The family has been intensively studied in the former Czechoslovakia, and comprehensive publications with keys for the identification of species are available (Chvála 1961, 1965).

References

[1] Barták M. 2001: Conopidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in an industrially affected  region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov Environs) II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 269-272.

[2] Chvála M. 1961: Czechoslovak species of the subfamily Conopinae (Diptera: Conopidae). Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Biologica,1961: 103-145.

[3] Chvála M. 1965: Czechoslovak species of the subfamilies Myopinae and Dalmanniinae (Diptera, Conopidae). Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Biologica 1965: 93-149.

[4] Chvála M. 1999: Conopidae. In Rozkošný R. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera of the Pálava Biosphere Reserve of UNESCO II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 100: 239-241.

[5] Stuke J.- H. & Barták M. 2004: Faunistic records, Conopidae. In Kubík Š. & Barták M. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 11. Folia Facultatis Scientiarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 332.

[6] Stuke J.- H. & Clements D. 2005: The interpretation of some Conopidae (Diptera) described by Robineau-Desvoidy. Zootaxa 886: 1-12.