Psychodidae Newman, 1834

Jan Ježek

Department of Entomology, National Museum, Kunratice 1, CZ-148 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic; jan_jezek@nm.cz

Small nematocerous flies (1.0-5.0 mm), thickly clothed with hairs and scales ("moth flies"), the colour of the vestiture mainly greyish-white or blackish-brown; rather broad, lancet-shaped and often patterned wings, with ten or eleven veins mostly reaching the wing margin, radial and medial forks usually developed, wing membrane bare or haired; ocelli absent, number of antennomeres 14-16, flagellomeres with characteristic sensory filaments (ascoids); hypopygium of the inverse type, with gonopods (gonocoxite and gonostyle), aedeagal complex, epandrium and hypandrium, surstyli with different numbers of retinaculi. Sexual dimorphism often developed. Shape of female subgenital plate and cerci occasionally useful for identification. Adult Psychodinae are found in a wide range of wet habitats, including rotting organic material and manure. Females of Sycoracinae suck the blood of some Amphibia. The larvae of non-phlebotomine moth flies are saprophagous, coprophilous, urinophilic, cochliothelmic, mycobiontic, psammobiontic, petrimadicolous, limimadicolous, bryomadicolous and bryofluicolous, and are also found in phyto- and dendrotelmes or actively tunnel the rotting wood of fallen trees (Trichomyinae). The larvae of non-biting moth flies are mainly semiaquatic and are probably all shredders of detritus (decaying organic matter). In general, the adults have not been observed feeding in nature, but sweet solutions were successfully used in the laboratory (Jung 1956).

Of the world subfamilies Phlebotominae, Bruchomyinae, Horaiellinae, Sycoracinae, Trichomyinae and Psychodinae, only the last three occur in Central Europe. Altogether almost 500 species are known to occur in Europe and the adjacent island areas (Wagner 2004), and 157 are listed in the present checklist: 148 in the Czech Republic (127 in Bohemia, 123 in Moravia) and 89 in Slovakia. Since the last version of the checklist, the number of species in the Czech Republic has increased by 46 (35 in Bohemia, 51 in Moravia) and in Slovakia by 24. The species-richness of the psychodid fauna in the Czech Republic is continualy increasing, and our knowledge of the moth flies in Slovakia is comparable but there are fewer species.

The basic characteristics of the family and useful keys have been given by Freeman (1950), Jung (1956), Rozkošný (1980), Szabó (1983), Tanasijchuk (1969), Vaillant (1971-1983), Wagner (1997) and Withers (1989). Some faunistic data from the Czech Republic and Slovakia were summarized by Ježek (2003) and completed by Bulánková (2003). The nomenclature used in the present checklist agrees only in some respects with the Fauna Europaea (Wagner 2004): there are differing and controversial taxonomic and nomenclatural views on this family currently being published, and it is not appropriate to discuss them in this very brief introduction.

This study was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (grant No. MK00002327201).

References

[1] Bulánková E. 1999: Výskyt vybraných skupín vodných dvojkrídlovcov v BR Poľana (Slovakia). Folia Faunistica Slovaca 4: 151-156.

[2] Bulánková E. 2003: Súpis druhov vodných bezstavovcov (makroevertebrát) Slovenska, Kapitola 2 – iné Diptera. In Šporka F. (ed.): Vodné bezstavovce (makroevertebráta) Slovenska. Súpis druhov a autekologické charakteristiky. Slovenský hydrometeorologický ústav, Bratislava, pp. 70-74.

[3] Bulánková E., Halgoš J., Krno I., Bitušík P., Illéšová D., Lukáš J., Derka T. & Šporka F. 2002: The influence of different thermal regime on the structure of coenoses of sternothermal hydrobionts in mountain streams. Acta Zoologica Universitatis Comenianae 44: 95-101.

[4] Freeman P. 1950: British Psychodidae. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 9, 2. Royal Entomological Society, London, pp. 77-96.

[5] Helešic J., Kubíček F., Losos B., Sedlák E. & Zahrádková S. 2001: Aquatic invertebrates and hydrobiology of the Dyje (Thaya) river in National Park Podyjí. Thayensia 4: 53-65.

[6] Ježek J. 1997: New and interesting taxa of moth flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) from different moist biotopes of the Palaearctic region. Časopis Národního Muzea, Řada přírodovědná 166: 105–122.

[7] Ježek J. 1998: Psychodidae. In Rozkošný R. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera of the Pálava Biosphere Reserve of UNESCO, I. Folia Facultatis Scientarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 99: 71-77.

[8] Ježek J. 1999: Moth flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) inhabiting wet extreme biotopes of the Sokolov open-cast coal mines and dumps, with descriptions of three new species from the western Bohemia. Acta Musei Nationlis Pragae, Series B, Historia Naturalis 54: 45−60.

[9] Ježek J. 2001: New Palaearctic taxa of moth flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) from very small accidental spirituous samples of insects. In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica Bohemoslovaca Vol 10. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 45: 53-66.

[10] Ježek J. 2002: The first account of Slovenian moth flies (Psychodidae, Diptera). Časopis Národního Muzea, Řada přírodovědná 171: 89-116.

[11] Ježek J. 2003: New faunistic data and check list of non phlebotomine moth flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Časopis Národního Muzea, Řada přírodovědná 172: 121-132.

[12] Ježek J. 2004: New and interesting moth flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) from protected and underestimated natural areas of the Czech Republic. Časopis Národního Muzea, Řada přírodovědná 173: 113-128.

[13] Ježek J. 2006a: Psychodidae (Diptera) of the Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area and its environs with descriptions of two new Berdeniella species from the Czech Republic. Acta entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 46: 151-192.

[14] Ježek J. 2006b: Faunistic records, Psychodidae. In Kinkorová J. (ed.): Dipterologica Bohemoslovaca Vol. 13. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 50: 139-141.

[15] Ježek J. 2006c:Koutulovití (Psychodidae, Diptera) CHKO Kokořínsko. In Beran L. (ed.): Bezobratlí Kokořínska. Bohemia centralis 27: 423-430.

[16] Ježek J. 2006d: New faunistic records of moth flies (Insecta, Diptera, Psychodidae) from Slovakia. Entomofauna carpathica, 18: 34-36.

[17] Ježek J. & Barták M. 2000: Psychodidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in an industrially affected region (North-Western Bohemia, Bílina and Duchcov Environs), I. Folia Facultatis Scientarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 104: 93-100.

[18] Ježek J., Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005: Psychodidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, PowerPrint, Praha 6 - Suchdol, pp. 78-85.

[19] Jung H.F. 1956: Beiträge zur Biologie, Morphologie und Systematik der Europäischen Psychodiden (Diptera). Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift (Berlin), N.F. 3: 97-257.

[20] Rozkošný R. 1980: Čeleď Koutulovití – Psychodidae. In Rozkošný R. (ed.): Klíč vodních larev hmyzu. Academia, Praha, pp. 261-272.

[21] Szabó J. 1983: 10. család: Psychodidae – Lepkeszúnyogok. Vol. 14 (4/C), In Szabó J. & Delyné Draskovits Á. (eds): Magyarország Állatvilága. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 1-78.

[22] 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, Vol. 11. Folia Facultatis Scientarium Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 109: 293-304.

[23] Tanasijchuk V.N. 1969: [Family Psychodidae – moth flies.] In Bey-Bienko G.Y. (ed.): [Key to the identification of insects of the European part of the USSR. Vol. 5(1).] Nauka, Leningrad, p. 113-134. (In Russian).

[24] Vaillant F. 1971-1983: 9d. Psychodidae – Psychodinae. In Lindner E. (ed.): Die Fliegen der Palaearktischen Region. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 287 (1971): 1-48; 291 (1972): 49-78; 292 (1972): 79-108; 305 (1974): 109-142; 310 (1975): 143-182; 317 (1978): 183-238; 320 (1979): 239-270; 326 (1981): 271-310; 328 (1983): 311-358.

[25] Wagner R. 1997: Family Psychodidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Science Herald, Budapest, Vol. 2, p. 205-226.

[26] Wagner R. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Psychodidae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europea: Diptera, Nematocera. Fauna Europaea version 1.2, http://www.faunaeur.org .

[27] Withers P. 1989: Moth flies, Diptera: Psychodidae. Dipterists Digest 4: 1-83.