Strongylophthalmyiidae Hendel, 1917

Jindřich Roháček

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

Small (3.5-5.5 mm), slender blackish flies with yellowish legs and somewhat flattened thorax and abdomen. Head rounded, frons rather wide, occiput swollen. Arista short-pubescent, ocelli present; ocellar setae developed, postvertical (postocellar) setae divergent, 2 fronto-orbital setae; interfrontal setulae and vibrissae absent. Wing hyaline, often with diffuse and somewhat darkened spots. C with a subcostal break; Sc incomplete, not reaching C, cells bm and cup present, the latter closed by convex CuA2. Tibiae without dorsal preapical setae. Gonostyli fused to epandrium; hypandrium weakly sclerotized; aedeagus long, slender, epiphallus developed. Terminal segments of female postabdomen forming a slender soft ovipositor. The larvae are xylosaprophagous and have been reared from under the bark of rotting logs from deciduous trees; puparia are formed in the bast under dead bark. The adults occur on low vegetation in wet deciduous forests near the breeding sites of the larvae.

The family is probably of Oriental origin; two genera are known worldwide and the majority of species are recorded from the Oriental and East Palaearctic regions (Iwasa 1998). Only one genus, Strongylophthalmyia Heller, 1902, with 2 species, occurs in Europe (Pape 2004); 1 species has been recorded from the Czech Republic (both Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovakia, and was listed in the previous version of the checklist. The family is treated in detail by Iwasa (1998); the European species can be recognized by the key in Krivosheina (1981). The nomenclature follows that of Krivosheina (1984).

References

[1] Iwasa M. 1998: 3.10. Family Strongylophthalmyiidae. In Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds): Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 3., Higher Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest, pp. 173-175.

[2] Krivosheina N.P. 1981: Novye palearkticheskie vidy dvukrylykh roda Strongylophalmyia Hell. (Diptera, Strongylophthalmyiidae). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 60: 183-186.

[3] Krivosheina N.P. 1984: Family Strongylophthalmyiidae. In Soós Á. & Papp L. (eds): Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera. Vol. 9 Micropezidae – Agromyzidae. Académiai Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 27-28.

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