Odiniidae Hendel, 1920

Jan Máca

Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the CR, Nám. Přemysla Otakara 34, CZ-37001 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; jan_maca@nature.cz

The European species are uniform in appearance, small (2.0-5.0 mm), grey dusted, plump flies with thickened legs, especially in males. Wing with a dark spot at junction of R1 and mostly with dark patches along transverse veins. The larvae have the anterior spiracles shifted dorsad, though not so conspicuously as in Agromyzidae Fallén, 1823 (Krivosheina 1981). The adults occur locally, mostly in primeval or natural-type forests, from lowlands to montane altitudes, whilst some prefer forest margins or alder and willow stands alongside rivers; Odinia boletina (Zetterstedt, 1848) is regularly found on bracket fungus Fomes fomentarius. The larvae live under the bark of deciduous and (rarely) coniferous trees, mostly in the galleries of wood-boring insects (Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera) with ambrosia fungi. Younger larvae are most probably saprophagous or mycetosaprophagous inquilines, but older ones are predators of puparia and sick larvae, and at least some are capable of cannibalism.

The Odiniidae is a small family comprising two subfamilies, currently with 59 described species (Gaimari & Mathis in press). Only the nominate subfamily is represented in Europe, with 15 species in two genera (Gaimari & Mathis in press). 7 species have been recorded in the Czech Republic (Máca 1997). Since the last version of the checklist, only a few faunistic records have been added (Máca 1999, 2004, Máca et al. 2005). Eight species are currently known from the Czech Republic (7 in Bohemia, 7 in Moravia) and 5 in Slovakia.

Papp (1998) published an account of the Palaearctic species, and Gaimari and Mathis (in press) have compiled the most recent survey of basic data on this family, also including data from the Czech Republic. However, there is no recent detailed monograph of this family dealing with the European species. A primarily faunistic paper on the species then known from the Czech Republic and Slovakia was published by Máca (1978).

References

[1] Gaimari S.D. & Mathis W.N. in press: World catalog and conspectus on the family Odiniidae (Diptera: Schizophora). Myia.

[2] Krivosheina N.P. 1981: K sistematike i biologii paleoarkticheskikch vidov dvukrylykh semeistva Odiniidae (Diptera), entomofagov ksilofilnykh nasekomykh. In Severtsov A.N. (ed.): Nasekomye – razruchiteli drevesiny i ikh entomofagi. Nauka, Moskva, pp. 130-157.

[3] Máca J. 1978: Czechoslovak species of the family Odiniidae (Diptera). Dipterologica Bohemoslovaca 1: 147-153.

[4] Máca J. 1997: Odiniidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics.  Karolinum, Praha p. 75.

[5] Máca J. 1999: Odiniidae. In Rozkošný R. & Vaňhara M. (eds): Diptera of the Pálava Biosphere Reserve of UNESCO, II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 100: 295-296.

[6] Máca J. 2004: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics, Diptera. Drosophilidae, Odiniidae. In Kubík Š. &  Barták M. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 11. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 334.

[7] Máca J., Kubík Š. & Barták M. 2005: Odiniidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita, Praha, pp. 283-284.

[8] Papp L. 1998:  Family Odiniidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to the Manual of Palaearctic Diptera, 3. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 233-242.