Scatopsidae Newman, 1834

Jean-Paul Haenni

Muséum d’histoire naturelle, rue des Terreaux 14, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland; jean-paul.haenni@unine.ch

The Scatopsidae are a medium-sized but still inadequately known family of derived nematocerous Diptera. Adults are minute to small midges ranging from 0.5 to 4.0 mm in length, generally dark in colour, sometimes more or less marked with yellow. Body rather strongly built, often quite elongated, with parallel-sided abdomen. Eyes holoptic, forming a characteristic supraantennal bridge. Antenna comparatively short, composed of two basal segments and a flagellum of 5-10 flagellomeres that are generally wider than long. Wing venation reduced, generally only anterior veins pigmented. Larvae flattened, with a complete cephalic capsule, peripneustic. All known larvae are saprophagous, living in a wide variety of media (rotten plants and fruits, rotten wood, under decaying bark of dead trees, soil, leaf litter, fungi, dung, etc) (Haenni & Vaillant 1994). The adults may be found in nearly all kinds of biotopes, but more frequently in open, fresh and marshy areas.

The world fauna of Scatopsidae comprises some 350 species (Haenni 1997), of which 98 species in 22 genera are known in Europe (Haenni 2004). 52 species are included in the present checklist: 46 from the Czech Republic (41 from Bohemia and 42 from Moravia) and 42 from Slovakia. Since the preceding version of checklist (Martinovský 1997b), which was mainly based upon the important papers by Martinovský (1997a) for the Czech Republic and by Kozánek and Roller (1997) for Slovakia, the number of species has increased by 8 in the Czech Republic (10 in Bohemia and 7 in Moravia) while it has remained the same in Slovakia. The rather numerous additional records may be found in a set of recent faunistic papers (Haenni & Barták 2000, 2006, Haenni et al. 2005, Martinovský 1998). On the other hand, two nomenclatorial change have been proposed by Haenni (1998, 2002). The species richness of the scatopsid fauna is rather well known in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia, but the number of species will continue to grow as there are several new species awaiting description.

The male and female genital characters enable safe identifications to be made. A key to the Palaearctic genera (both larvae and adults) may be found in Haenni (1997), where references to papers for identification to species level are also included. The classification used here follows Amorim (1994) and Chandler (1998), while the nomenclature follows Haenni (2004).

References

[1] Amorim D. de Souza 1994: A new suprageneric classification of the Scatopsidae (Diptera: Psychodomorpha). Iheringia, Série Zooogia 77: 107-112.

[2] Chandler P. 1998: Scatopsidae. In Chandler P. (ed.): Checklists of Insects of the British Isles (New Series). Part 1. Diptera (Incorporating a List of Irish Diptera). Handbooks for the Identification of  British Insects, Vol. 12. Royal Entomological Society, London, pp. 47-48.

[3] Haenni J.-P. 1997: Family Scatopsidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera (with special reference to flies of economic importance). Volume 2. Nematocera and Lower Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 255-272.

[4] Haenni J.-P. 1998: Scatopsidae. In: Merz B., Bächli G., Haenni J.-P. & Gonseth Y. (eds): Diptera - Checklist. Fauna Helvetica 1. CSCF / SEG, Neuchâtel, pp. 141-144.

[5] Haenni J.-P. 2002: Redescription de Scatopse filamentosa Duda, 1928, avec une nouvelle synonymie (Diptera, Scatopsidae). Bulletin de la Société Neuchâteloise des Sciences Naturelles 125: 93-96.

[6] Haenni J.-P. 2004: Fauna Europaea: Scatopsidae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Nematocera. Fauna Europaea version 1.2. http://www.faunaeur.org/.

[7] Haenni, J.-P. & Barták M. 2000: Scatopsidae. In Barták M. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera in an industrially affected region (North-Western Bohemia, Bilina and Duchcov environs), I. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 104: 105-109.

[8] Haenni J.-P. & Barták M. 2006: Faunistic records from the Czech Republic (Diptera: Scatopsidae). Entomofauna carpathica 18: 85.

[9] Haenni J.-P., Barták M. & Kubík Š. 2005:  Scatopsidae. In Barták M. & Kubík Š. (eds): Diptera of Podyjí National Park and its Environs. Česká zemědělská univerzita, Praha, pp. 90-93.

[10] Haenni J.-P. & Vaillant F. 1994: Description of dendrolimnobiontic larvae of Scatopsidae (Diptera) with a review of our knowledge of the preimaginal stages of the family. Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 67: 43-59.

[11] Kozánek M. & Roller L. 1997: A study of  scatopsid (Diptera: Scatopsidae) communities in Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 52: 637-646.

[12] Martinovský J. 1997a: Contribution to the knowledge of Scatopsidae (Diptera) from the Czech and Slovak Republics, with descriptions of two new species. Časopis Slezkého Muzea v Opave (A) 45 (1996): 193-210.

[13] Martinovský J. 1997b: Scatopsidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Carolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, pp. 32-33.

[14] Martinovský J. 1998. Scatopsidae. In Rozkožný R. & Vaňhara J. (eds): Diptera of the Pálava Biosphere Reserve of UNESCO, I. Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Biologia 99: 83-85.