Platystomatidae Schiner, 1862

Jindřich Roháček

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

Small to large (3.0-11.0 mm), often robust, dark-coloured flies, either with brown wings with numerous hyaline dots and with stout, microtrichose body and usually a bright yellow ventral part of the abdomen, or with dark banded or spotted wings and a shining, narrow body. Head rounded to distinctly flattened; ocelli present, arista pubescent or bare; ocellar and postvertical (potsocellar) setae reduced or absent; true vibrissae absent; 1-2 fronto-orbital setae, interfrontal setulae scattered. Wing with a dark pattern, either transversly banded (Rivellia) or dark and densely pale spotted (Platystoma). Costa with a humeral break, subcosta complete; bm-cu present; cell cup closed by a straight or arcuate vein, without a posteroapical pointed lobe. No dorsal preapical setae on tibiae. Male abdomen and postabdomen similar to those in the Tephritidae: sternite 6 very narrow, bare, tergite 6 absent, gonostylus with 1-2 thickened tooth-like prensisetae, phallus coiled in a pocket underneath 5th tergite at rest, distiphallus very long, apically with large glans, bearing 2-3 tubes called apical filaments. Female abdomen usually with 6th tergite (and often 4th and 5th tergites) strongly reduced; postabdomen as described for Ulidiidae. The larvae are either saprophagous in rotting vegetation or are associated with root nodules in legumes (Rivellia). Adults occur in meadows and grassland swamps with legumes (Rivellia) or in warm steppe to forest-steppe habitats (Platystoma).

Altogether 20 species in 2 genera, including 9 taxa considered to be subspecies, are known to occur in Europe (Korneyev 2004); 6 species (and 1 subspecies) are included in the present checklist (5 in the Czech Republic, 3 in Bohemia, 5 in Moravia, and 6 plus 1 subspecies in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has not changed. The family is characterized in detail by McAlpine (1998) and Korneyev (2001) who also gave keys to the Palaearctic genera. The Central European species of Platystomatidae can be identified using the papers by Hennig (1945), Lyneborg (1964) or Soós (1980). The nomenclature of this checklist follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Korneyev 2004).

References

[1] Hennig W. 1945: Platystomidae. In Lidner E. (ed.): Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region. Vol. 5(1). Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, pp. 1-56.

[2] Korneyev V.A. 2001: A key to genera of Palaearctic Platystomatidae (Diptera), with descriptions of a new genus and new species. Entomological Problems (Bratislava) 32: 1-16.

[3] Korneyev V.N. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Platystomatidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[4] Lyneborg, L. 1964: Danske acalyptrate fluer. 2. Psilidae, Platystomidae og Otitidae (Diptera). Entomologiske Meddelelser, København 32: 367-388.

[5] McAlpine D.K. 1998: 3.13. Family Platystomatidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 193-199.

[6] Soós Á. 1980: Platystomatidae – Laposfejü legyek. Fauna Hungariae 143, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 93-100.