Stenomicridae Papp, 1984

Jindřich Roháček

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

Minute to small (1.0-2.0 mm), slender, delicate flies with yellow to grey body. Head with somewhat reduced frontal chaetotaxy (ocellars absent, 2 fronto-orbitals with anterior inclinate, 1 external vertical, postverticals small and divergent or absent) and gena with a series of ventroclinate setae terminated by 1 porrect pseudovibrissa. Antenna geniculate, arista long-pectinate, drosophilid-like. Thorax narrower than head, with short humeral and 1-2 postsutural dorsocentrals. Tibiae lacking dorsopreapical setae. Wing narrow, hyaline or with tinged spots, with 1 (subcostal) break, Sc incomplete, cross-veins bm-cu and sometimes also dm-cu absent, cell cup open. Male genitalia with discrete, strongly inclinate gonostylus, peculiar and setose (medially not fused.): medandrium (= bacilliform sclerite), asymmetrical aedeagal complex, relatively small phallapodeme and rather large ejacapodeme. Biology unsufficiently known. The larvae probably develop in the water-holding leaf bases of plants, particularly monocotyledons. The adults of some species are closely associated with tussocks of large Carex species, others also with Typha, Scirpus or Cyperus; Stenomicra soniae Merz & Roháček 2005 may even be associated with dicotyledonous umbellifers (see Merz & Roháček 2005).

The family comprises the single genus Stenomicra Coquillett, 1900. Altogether 3 species are known to occur in Europe (Merz & Roháček 2005). Only 1 species was previously recorded from the Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovakia but under an incorrect name (Roháček 1997). This misidentified species was described as S. soniae (Merz & Roháček 2005). Since the last version of checklist, the number of species in the Czech Republic has increased by 1, recorded from Moravia by Roháček (2006). The family was erected for Stenomicra species by Papp (1984), but previously and often subsequently the genus has been treated as a member of the Aulacigastridae or the Periscelididae, most recently as a subfamily of the latter by e.g. Mathis and Papp (1998), Freidberg and Mathis (2002) or Merz and Roháček (2005). The West Palaearctic species of the only genus Stenomicra were treated in detail and keyed by Merz and Roháček (2005), who also included a summary of all the faunistic data from the Czech Republic and Slovakia except for those added by Roháček (2006). The nomenclature used here follows that of Merz and Roháček (2005).

References

[1] Freidberg A. & Mathis W.N. 2002: The Periscelididae (Diptera) of Israel, with description of a new species of Stenomicra Coquillett. Israel Journal of Zoology 48: 43-51.

[2] Mathis W. N. & Papp L. 1998: 3.24. Family Periscelididae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Volume 3. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 285-294.

[3] Merz B. & Roháček J. 2005: The Western Palaearctic species of Stenomicra Coquillett (Diptera, Periscelididae, Stenomicrinae), with description of a new species of the subgenus Podocera Czerny. Revue suisse de Zoologie 112: 519-539.

[4] Papp L. 1984: Family Stenomicridae. In Soós A. & Papp L. (eds): Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera. Volume 10. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 61-63.

[5] Roháček J. 1997: Stenomicridae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum – Charles University Press, Prague, p. 79.

[6] Roháček J. 2006: Faunistic records. Stenomicridae. In Kinkorová J. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 13. Acta Universitatis Carolinae –  Biologica 50: 154.