Piophilidae Macquart, 1835

Miroslav Barták

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

The adults are small to medium-sized flies, with body lengths from 2.5 to 6.0 mm. Body colour very variable, from yellow to black, often shining black with yellow markings on head and legs. Frons with 0-3 orbital bristles in addition to hairs. Diverging postocellars, ocellars, outer verticals and inner verticals present as well as vibrissae. Wings clear (usually) to dark patterned, vein C with subcostal break, Sc complete, alula well developed. Tibiae without dorsal preapical bristle. For a more detailed description of the adult morphology, consult McAlpine (1977). Piophilid larvae live in various substrates but prefer to develop in exposed carcasses in advanced stages of decay, and they are able to skip and jump. The larva of Neottiophilum praeustum (Meigen, 1826) sucks the blood of nestlings birds. Most other larvae live in animal carrion, rotting fungi, or occasionally in other proteinaceous animal and vegetable matter. The adults of many species can be easily captured by means of the baited traps described by Barták and Martinek (1990).

Altogether 29 species are known to occur in Europe (Ozerov 2004), and 17 are listed in the present checklist (17 in the Czech Republic, 16 in Bohemia, 13 in Moravia, and 14 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has increased in the Czech Republic by one, both in Bohemia and Moravia (Barták 2001, Barták & Kubík 2005) and the same species has recently been found in Slovakia (Roháček 2001). The species-richness of the piophilid fauna is moderately well known in the Czech Republic but less well in Slovakia.

The basic characteristics of the family were given McAlpine (1977). The Central Europen species may be identified using this monograph, but some corrections are needed due to recently described species (Merz 1996, Ozerov & Barták 1993). The nomenclature in the present checklist is that in the Fauna Europaea (Ozerov 2004).

References

[1] Barták M. 2001: Piophilidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in an Industrially Affected Region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov Environs) II. Folia Facultatis Scientiarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 105: 283-287.

[2] Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005: Piophilidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. ČZU Praha, pp. 251-252.

[3] Barták M. & Martinek V. 1990: Seasonal occurrence of Piophilidae and Heleomyzidae. Abstract Volume 2nd Int. Congress of Dipterology, Bratislava, p. 330.

[4] McAlpine J.F. 1977: A revised classification of the Piophilidae including „Neottiophilidae“ and „Thyreophoridae“ (Diptera: Schizophora). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 103: 1-66.

[5] Merz B. 1996: Die Piophilidae (Diptera) der Schweiz, mit Beschreibung einer neuen Art. Mitteilungen der Schweizer Entomologischen Gesellschaft 69: 345-360.

[6] Ozerov A.L. & Barták M. 1993: Two new palaearctic species of Piophilidae (Diptera). Russian Entomological Journal 2: 73-76.

[7] Ozerov A.L. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Piophilidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[8] Roháček J. 2001: Faunistic records: Piophilidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca, Vol. 10. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 45: 191-192.