Pallopteridae Loew, 1862

Miroslav Barták¹ & Bernhard Merz²

¹ Czech University of Agriculture, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Department of Zoology and Fishery, CZ-165 21 Praha 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic; bartak@af.czu.cz

² Département d'Entomologie, Muséum d'histoire naturelle C. P. 6434, CH-1211 Genève 6, Suisse – Switzerland; bernhard.merz@ville-ge.ch

Small to medium-sized flies with a body length ranging from 2.5 to 6.0 mm, varying in colour from yellow to black, often with dark markings on the wings. Head mostly with only one upper orbital bristle, poc parallel or slightly diverging, vibrissae absent. Wing with complete vein Sc and evenly concave outer margin of cell cup. For further details on the adult morphology, see Merz (1998). The known larvae are very similar to those of Lonchaeidae. They are elongate-cylindrical, rather smooth, with only a few ventral creeping spines. The larvae have two distinct trophic strategies: those forming the first group live in plants and are either phytophagous or carnivorous or a combination of both, and those forming the second group live under bark where they are carnivorous, preying upon the larvae of bark beetles or other insects. For further details on the larval morphology, see Merz (1998).

Altogether 23 species are known to occur in Europe (Merz 2004); 16 are listed in the present checklist (14 in the Czech Republic, 14 in Bohemia, 12 in Moravia, and 14 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has increased by one species that was not considered as a separate species previously (Martinek et al.  2005). The faunistics of both the Czech and Slovak species are rather well studied.

The basic characteristics of the family are given by Merz (1998). There is no published key enabling the identification of all central European species, however, key by Morge (1967) is still useful. The nomenclature in the Fauna Europaea (Merz 2004) is used in the present checklist.

References

[1] Martinek V. 1977. Species of the genus Palloptera Fallén, 1820 (Diptera, Pallopteridae) in Czechoslovakia. Studia Entomologica Forestalia 2: 203-220.

[2] Martinek V., Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005: Pallopteridae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. ČZU Praha, 432 pp.

[3] Merz B. 1998.  3.14. Family Pallopteridae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Volume 3. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 201-210.

[4] Merz B. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Pallopteridae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea Version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[5] Morge G. 1967: Die Lonchaeidae und Pallopteridae Österreichs und der angrenzenden Gebiete. 2. Teil. Die Pallopteridae. Naturkundliches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 13: 141-212.