Opomyzidae Fallén, 1820

Jindřich Roháček

Department of Entomology, Silesian Museum, Tyršova 1, CZ-746 01 Opava, Czech Republic; rohacek@szmo.cz

Small (2.0-5.0 mm), slender, yellow, brown to blackish flies, usually with narrow, often maculated wings (at least with tip darkened.). Head rounded, ocelli present; arista pubescent to plumose; ocellar setae present, postverticals (postocellars) absent or divergent, only 1 reclinate orbital, interfrontal setulae scattered, true vibrissa absent. Thorax with 1 or more anepimeral (pteropleural) setae; anepisternum (mesopleuron) usually setulose; 2 scutellar setae. Wing narrow, alula and anal lobe reduced or absent. Costa with only subcostal break, subcosta reduced and fused with R1, forming a preapical kink on it, cross-vein bm-cu present but incomplete. Tibiae without dorsopreapical setae. Male genitalia with gonostylus fused to epandrium. The adults are typical inhabitants of grassland (both wet and dry) but some also occur in the grassy undergrowth of forests. The larvae are phytophagous in graminoid herbs, feeding in stems and causing “dead heart” damage to grasses; several species are cereal pests.

Three genera and 34 species are listed in the Fauna Europaea (Van Zuijlen 2004), but this number should be reduced to 33 because of synonymy, see Van Zuijlen and Roháček (2006). Altogether 21 species of 2 genera are included in the present checklist (21 in the Czech Republic, 19 in Bohemia, 19 in Moravia, and 15 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has decreased by 1 in the Czech Republic (1 in BohemiA) but has increased by 3 in Moravia, and has decreased by 1 in Slovakia. This reduction has been caused by new synonymies in Geomyza Fallén, 1810 (Van Zuijlen & Roháček 2006). The family is well studied in the Czech Republic but is less well known in Slovakia. It was characterised in detail by Brunel (1998) who also keyed the Palaearctic genera. The species occuring in Central Europe can be identified by means of Drake (1993), with additions and corrections by Martinek (1978a), Drake (1992), Carles-Tolrá (1993), and Van Zuijlen (1999). There is no comprehensive study on the Czech and Slovak species of Opomyzidae, except for that by Martinek (1978b); subsequent faunistic data are scattered in a number of papers (for references, see Martinek & Barták 2001, Van Zuijlen & Roháček 2006). The nomenclature used here follows the Fauna Europaea (Van Zuijlen 2004), with the changes proposed by Van Zuijlen and Roháček (2006).

References

[1] Brunel É. 1998: 3.21. Family Opomyzidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 259-266.

[2] Carles-Tolrá M. 1993: Tri novykh vida sem. Opomyzidae (Diptera) iz Ispanii. Entomologicheskoe obozrenie 72: 410-413.

[3] Drake C.M. 1992: Two new species of Geomyza with notes on the combinata group (Diptera: Opomyzidae). British Journal of Entomology and Natural History 5: 143-153.

[4] Drake C.M. 1993: A review of the British Opomyzidae (Diptera). British Journal of Entomology and Natural History 6: 159-176.

[5] Martinek V. 1978a: The female of Opomyza thalhammeri and a new species of the genus Geomyza (Diptera, Opomyzidae).  Acta entomologica bohemoslovaca 75: 336-343.

[6] Martinek V. 1978b: Species of the family Opomyzidae (Diptera) in Czechoslovakia. In Országh I. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca 1, Veda, Bratislava, pp. 155-173.

[7] Martinek V. & Barták M. 2001: Opomyzidae. 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: 365-368.

[8] Zuijlen J.W.A. van 1999: Notes on the Fallén collection of Opomyzidae (Diptera) in Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm. Studia dipterologica 6: 129-134.

[9] Zuijlen J.-W. van 2004: Fauna Europaea: Opomyzidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[10] Zuijlen J.W.A. van & Roháček J. 2006: Notes on the Opomyzidae (Diptera) of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with two new synonyms in Geomyza Fallén. Časopis Slezského zemského muzea (A) 55: 125-130.