Mycetobiidae Crampton, 1924

Jan Ševčík

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

Medium-sized (4.0-8.0 mm), dark coloured Nematocera with elongated body and legs. Eyes separated, but almost touching at vertex; three ocelli; antenna relatively short, tapering, scape and pedicel short, flagellum with 14 segments. Wing moderately large, without dark markings, C ending beyond tip of R, anal vein strong and reaching wing margin, d-cell absent. The larvae are saprophagous and are found in various decaying and fermenting organic materials such as sap runs, or under the bark of trees (Hancock et al. 1996, Krivosheina 1997). The adults are very rare, occurring from May to June, mainly in forest habitats.

Altogether 3 species are known to occur in Europe (Chandler 2004); all of them are listed in the present checklist (3 from the Czech Republic, 2 from Bohemia, 3 from Moravia, and 2 from Slovakia). Since the last version of checklist (Martinovský 1997), one species has been added to the fauna of the Czech Republic (also 1 for Moravia) and two species to the fauna of Slovakia (Ševčík 1999, 2004, 2005). The species composition of the mycetobiid fauna in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia is relatively well known, although at least one additional species is expected.

The basic characteristics of the family were recently given by Krivosheina (1997). The systematic position of the family is still not fully clarified and some authors tend to treat it as a subfamily of the Anisopodidae (Michelsen 1999). The identification of the European species is based mainly on the complex structure of the male or female terminalia and is possible using the keys and figures by Hancock et al. (1996) and Mamaev (1968). The nomenclature used in the present checklist follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Chandler 2004).

References

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

[2] Hancock E.G., Robertson D.M. & MacGowan I. 1996: Saproxylic Diptera in Scotland 1. Additions to the British fauna of Mycetobia (Diptera; Mycetobiidae). Dipterists Digest 3: 32-35.

[3] Krivosheina N.P. 1997: Family Mycetobiidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 2. Science Herald. Budapest, pp. 249-254.

[4] Mamaev B.M 1968: New Nematocerous Diptera of the USSR fauna (Diptera, Axymiidae, Mycetobiidae, Sciaridae, Cecidomyiidae). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 47: 605-616.

[5] Martinovský J. 1997: Mycetobiidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Carolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, p. 32.

[6] Michelsen V. 1999: Wood gnats of the genus Sylvicola (Diptera, Anisopodidae): taxonomic status, family assignment, and review of nominal species described by J. C. Fabricius. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 142: 69-75.

[7] Ševčík J. 1999: First record of Mycetobia pallipes (Diptera, Mycetobiidae) from Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 54: 168.

[8] Ševčík J. 2004: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics: Diptera. Mycetobiidae. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 324.

[9] Ševčík J. 2005: New records of Bolitophilidae, Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Mycetobiidae (Diptera) from Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 60: 588, 598.