Keroplatidae Rondani, 1856

Jan Ševčík¹, Vladimír Košel²

¹Silesian Museum, Tyršova 1, CZ-746 01 Opava, Czech Republic; sevcikjan@email.cz

²Department of Zoology, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, SK-842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; kosel@fns.uniba.sk

Small to large (3.0-15 mm), morphologically diverse, yellowish to dark brown fungus gnats. Head with three ocelli; antenna with scape and pedicel short, flagellum with 14 segments, in some Macrocerinae very long (several times longer than body), in Keroplatinae sometimes with laterally flattened segments. Mouthparts in some genera elongated. Thorax hump-backed, legs with long coxae, abdomen usually narrow. Wings often with dark markings, wing membrane with or without macrotrichia. Sc ending in C, R and M fused for a short distance. The larvae are predaceous or mycophagous, usually associated with wood-decaying fungi. The larvae of Keroplatus Bosc, 1792 and some other genera are known for their bioluminescence. Adults occur in the undergrowth of forests, especially in shaded places alongside streams and on tree trunks, but also in meadow and steppe habitats.

At present, the family Keroplatidae is divided into 4 subfamilies – Keroplatinae, Macrocerinae, Arachnocampinae and Sciarokeroplatinae (Matile 1990, Papp & Ševčík 2005, Søli et al. 2000). Like other fungus gnat families of the superfamily Sciaroidea, it was formerly included in the Mycetophilidae. There are about 800 described species in the world (Søli et al. 2000), but probably the same number of species still await description. More than 100 species are known to occur in Europe (Chandler 2004, Søli et al. 2000); 59 are listed in the present checklist (59 from the Czech Republic, 41 in Bohemia, 52 in Moravia, and 36 from Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist (Košel et al. 1997), 19 species have been added to the Czech Republic (14 species for Bohemia and 17 for Moravia), and 8 species to Slovakia (Martinovský 2001, Martinovský & Barták 2000, Ševčík 2001a,  2001b, 2002, 2004, 2006a, 2006b, Ševčík & Martinovský 1999, Ševčík et al. 2005). The species composition of Keroplatidae in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia is relatively well known, although several additional species can still be expected, especially in Slovakia.

The basic characteristics of the family were recently given by Matile (1990), Søli et al. (2000), Hutson et al. (1980) and Zaitzev (1994), including the identification keys. The nomenclature used in the present checklist follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Chandler 2004).

References

[1] Chandler P. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Keroplatidae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Nematocera. Fauna Europaea Version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[2] Hutson A.M., Ackland D.M. & Kidd L.N. 1980: Mycetophilidae (Bolitophilinae, Ditomyiinae, Diadocidiinae, Keroplatinae, Sciophilinae and Manotinae). Diptera, Nematocera. Handbooks for the identification of British insects 9: 1-111.

[3] Košel V., Chandler P. & Martinovský J. 1997: Keroplatidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, p. 18-19.

[4] Martinovský J. 2001: New records on little-known western Palaearctic Macrocera Meigen, with a description of M. jonica sp. N. from Greece (Diptera: Keroplatidae). In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca 10, Acta Universitatis Carolinae Biologica 45: 109-114

[5] Martinovský J. & Barták M. 2000: Keroplatidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in an industrially affected region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov environs) I. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 104: 57-58.

[6] Matile L. 1990: Recherches sur la systématique et l'évolution des Keroplatidae (Diptera, Mycetophiloidea). Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris, Sér. A, Zoologie 148: 1-654.

[7] Papp L. & Ševčík J. 2005: Sciarokeroplatinae, a new subfamily of Keroplatidae (Diptera). Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 51: 113-123.

[8] Søli G.E.E., Vockeroth J.R. & Matile L. 2000: A.4. Families of Sciaroidea. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Appendix. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 49-92.

[9] Ševčík J. 2001a: New records of Diadocidiidae, Keroplatidae and Mycetophilidae (Diptera: Sciaroidea) from the Czech Republic. Časopis Slezského zemského muzea, Opava (A) 50: 159-169.

[10] Ševčík J. 2001b: Diptera (excluding Mycetophilidae s. str.) associated with fungi in Czech and Slovak Republics: a survey of rearing records from 1998-2000. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 45: 157-168.

[11] Ševčík J. 2002: New records of Bolitophilidae, Keroplatidae and Mycetophilidae (Diptera) from Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 57: 198, 212.

[12] Ševčík J. 2004: New data on Sciaroidea (Diptera) from the Czech and Slovak Republics, with descriptions of seven new species of Mycetophilidae. Časopis Slezského zemského muzea, Opava (A) 53: 49-74.

[13] Ševčík J. 2006a: Keroplatidae. In Kinkorová J. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca, Vol. 13. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 50: 137.

[14] Ševčík J. 2006b: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Diptera: Ditomyiidae, Keroplatidae, Mycetophilidae, Dixidae. Entomofauna carpathica 18: 46

[15] Ševčík J. & Martinovský J. 1999: Faunistic records. Keroplatidae, Mycetophilidae. In Jedlička L. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca. Vol. 9. Slovak Entomological Society, Bratislava, pp. 189-193.

[16] Ševčík J., Kubík Š. & Barták M. 2005: Keroplatidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and Environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita, Praha, pp. 44-66.

[17] Zaitzev A.I. 1994: Fungus gnats of the fauna of Russia and adjacent regions. Part 1. Nauka, Moscow, 288 pp.