Psilidae Loew, 1861

Miroslav Barták¹ & Miguel Carles-Tolrá²

¹Czech 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

²Avda. Príncipe de Asturias 30, ático 1, E-08012 Barcelona, Spain; mcarlestolra@terra.es

Small to medium-sized flies, body length 2.5-12 mm, slender to robust, varying in colour from yellow to black. Vibrissae absent, costa with subcostal break at some distance from the point of its confluence with R1, tibiae without dorsal preapical seta. Further details on the adult morphology are given by Iwasa (1998). The larvae are typically maggot-like, slender and smooth, anterior spiracle with species-specific lobes, and posterior spiracular plate with three elongate oval slits. More information about the larval morphology can be found in Iwasa (1998). The larvae are phytophagous, developing in various plants, in flowers of Daucaceae or even in fruits. Some species develop in wounds in trees or under bark.

Altogether 47 species are known to occur in Europe (Pape 2004); 38 are listed in the present checklist (35 in the Czech Republic, 34 in Bohemia, 31 in Moravia, and 34 in Slovakia). Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species has not increased in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia, but faunistic knowledge was completed by two findings, one in Bohemia and one in Moravia (Martinek & Barták 2001, Martinek et al. 2005). The species-richness of the psilid fauna is moderately well known in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The basic characteristics of the family were given by Iwasa (1998). The Central Europen species may be identified using the classical monographs by Hennig (1941) or Stackelberg (1989), with more recent additions and corrections by  Carles-Tolrá (1993), Shatalkin (1986), Soós (1980, 1985) and Wang (1988). Recently, Shatalkin (1986) has revised the genera of Psilidae and has recognised only one genus, Psila. The nomenclature of the Fauna Europaea (Pape 2004) is used in this checklist.

References

[1] Carles-Tolrá M. 1993: A new species of Chamaepsila Hendel from the Czech Republic, with a key to the bicolor-group species (Diptera, Psilidae). Graellsia 49: 91-95.

[2] Hennig W. 1941: Psilidae. In Lindner E. (ed.): Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region, V, pp. 1-38.

[3] Iwasa M. 1998: Family Psilidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Vol. 3. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 177-183.

[4] Martinek V. & Barták M. 2001. Psilidae. 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: 263-268.

[5] Martinek V., Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005: Psilidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. ČZU Praha, pp. 239-242.

[6] Pape T. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Psilidae. In Pape T. (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Brachycera. Fauna Europaea version 1.1, http://www.faunaeur.org.

[7] Shatalkin A.I. 1986: [Review of the east Palaearctic flies of Psila Mg. (Diptera, Psilidae), with the key to the Palaearctic species.] Proceedings of the Zoological Institute, Leningrad 146: 23-43. (In Russian).

[8] Soós Á. 1980: Psilidae – Csupaszlegyek. Fauna Hungariae 143. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 100 pp.

[9] Soós Á. 1985: Untersuchungen einiger Psilidae-Typen aus der Zetterstedt’schen Sammlung nebst Beschreibung einer neuen Art (Diptera, Psilidae). Acta Zoologica Hungarica 31: 235-244.

[10] Stackelberg, A.A. 1989: Family Psilidae. In Bei-Bienko G.Y. & Steyskal G.C. (eds): Key to insects of the European part os the USSR. Vol. V. Diptera and Siphonaptera, Part 2. Brill, Leiden, etc, pp. 184-191.

[11] Wang X. 1988: Bestimmungstabelle der westpalaearktischen Chamaepsila-Arten (Diptera: Psilidae). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Ser. A 417: 1-13.