Platypezidae Fallén, 1815

Jaromír Vaňhara

Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, CZ-61137 Brno, Czech Republic; vanhara@sci.muni.cz

Mostly very small flies, from 2.0 to 5.0 mm, inhabiting forests or woodlands from lowland to montane habitats. This is a relatively rare family in Central Europe, though females sometimes congregate on mushrooms (Fungi, Holobasidiomycetes) during oviposition. The larvae can be abundant in the infested fruiting bodies of mushrooms. They are monophagous or oligophagous, but one gall-forming species is known. The larval development, morphology and hosts are rather poorly known. The species diversity is dependent on the species diversity of the fungi, which require undisturbed forest ecosystems with a mainly natural character and with limited collection of fruiting bodies in places where the pressure from human activities is great. Most of the Czech species were included in the "Czech Red Book" (Vaňhara & Ševčík 2005) in connection with the necessary protection of mushrooms. Sweeping and individual collecting are the most important methods for collecting platypezids, but adults can also occur in light traps; Microsania species are fumatropic and can be individually netted in bonfire smoke. It is useful to rear larvae in order to increase knowledge of their fungal hosts.

The Platypezidae are divided into three subfamilies, Callomyinae, Microsaniinae and Platypezinae. Some 70 species are known from the Palaearctic region (Chandler & Shatalkin 1998). The adults and known larvae of the European species are keyed by Chandler (2001), and the available information on species from the East Palaearctic can be found in Shatalkin (1985). The recent monographic study of the European species (Chandler 2001) mentioned 42 species, as did the Fauna Europaea (Chandler 2005). The previous version of the checklist included no more than 31 species of flat-footed flies from the Czech Republic and 26 species from Slovakia (Vaňhara 1995). Over the last decade (1997-2006) one species for the Czech Republic and one species for Slovakia has been added (Ševčík 2004, Tkoč & Vaňhara 2006). The detailed distribution of the species in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been summarised by Vaňhara (1995). Compared with the fauna of neighbouring countries (Austria 16 species, Germany 29, Hungary 26, Poland 24) (Chandler 2005) the fauna of the Czech Republic and Slovakia is well known, but it is possible that further species will be found in both countries. The nomenclature of the present checklist follows (Chandler 2005).

For financial support, the Ministry of Education and the Masaryk University (grant No. MSM 0021622416) are acknowledged.

References

[1] Chandler P.J. 2001: The Flat-footed Flies (Diptera: Opetiidae, Platypezidae) of Europe. Fauna Ent. Scand., vol. 36. E.J. Brill, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 276 pp.

[2] Chandler P.J. 2005: Fauna Europaea: Platypezidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.2, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[3] Chandler P.J. & Shatalkin A.I. 1998: Platypezidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Vol. 3. Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 27-49.

[4] Shatalkin A.I. 1985: [A review of the flat-footed flies (Diptera, Platypezidae) of the USSR.] Trudy Zoologicheskogo Muzeja Moskovskogo Universiteta 23: 69-136. (In Russian).

[5] Ševčík J. 2004: Diptera associated with fungi in the Poloniny National Park (Bukovské vrchy Mts., East Slovakia). In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca 13. Folia Facultatis Scientarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 293-304.

[6] Tkoč M. & Vaňhara J. 2006: Faunistic Records: Diptera, Platypezidae, Lindneromyia hungarica, Chandler, 2001. Entomofauna carpathica 18: 36.

[7] Vaňhara J. 1995: Recent distribution of flat-footed flies (Diptera: Opetiidae and Platypezidae) in Czech and Slovak Republics with a revised check list and species quality indexing. Časopis Slezského Muzea Opava (A) 44: 43-61.

[8] Vaňhara J. 1997: Opetiidae. Platypezidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, pp. 57-58.

[9] Vaňhara J. & Ševčík J. 2005: Platypezidae (Diptera). In Farkač J., Král D. & Škorpík M. (eds): Červený seznam ohrožených druhů České republiky. Bezobratlí. Red List of Threatened Species in the Czech Republic. Invertebrates. AOPK ČR, Praha, pp. 296-298.