Trichoceridae Rondani, 1841

Jaroslav Starý

Department of Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, tř. Svobody 26, CZ-771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic; stary@prfnw.upol.cz

The family comprises uniformly dark-coloured species, mostly resembling small or medium-sized Limoniidae and differing from all other Tipulomorpha (Limoniidae, Pediciidae, Tipulidae, Cylindrotomidae) by the presence of ocelli and by vein A2 being short, mostly abruptly bent towards the wing margin. The female ovipositor is more or less curved downwards. The larvae are terrestrial, living in moist soil, decaying plants, mushrooms, animal droppings, etc. Adults are frequently to be found in damp places. Many Trichocera Meigen, 1803 produce swarms of predominantly male specimens. As to the species diversity, their occurrence in temperate Europe is strikingly concentrated in the mountains and is often restricted to late autumn. Some Trichocera species appear throughout winter. Diazosma Bergroth, 1913 occurs only in summer.

Altogether 50 species are known to occur in Europe (Krzemińska 2005). 35 species are listed in the present checklist: 29 from the Czech Republic (19 in Bohemia and 29 in Moravia) and 32 from Slovakia. Compared with the previous version of the checklist, 10 species have been added for the Czech Republic (6 in Bohemia and 10 in Moravia), and 11 species for Slovakia. Some names have been changed for reasons that are noted in the checklist. The Czech and Slovak faunas of the Trichoceridae are comparatively well-investigated, but further species that are known to occur elsewhere in Europe or are still unnamed may well be added to the faunas.

Recently, as more attention has been paid to the European Trichoceridae, the descriptions of new species has considerably increased the number of known species so that previous keys, such as those by Edwards (1938), Dahl (1966), and others, have become largely out-of-date. The Czech and Slovak members of the most species-rich T. saltator group were keyed by Starý (1999). The subgeneric classification of the genus Trichocera was re-assessed by Starý (1998), and that classification is adopted here. Subsequently, another subgenus of Trichocera, Saltrichocera Krzemińska, 2002, was erected (Krzemińska 2002) for the species of the T. saltator group, but that concept is not accepted here for the time being as it is not equally applicable to all the species in the checklist.

References

[1]   Dahl C. 1966: Notes on the taxonomy and distribution of Swedish Trichoceridae (Diptera, Nematocera). Opuscula Entomologica 31: 93-118.

[2]   Edwards F.W. 1938: British short-palped craneflies. Taxonomy of adults. Transactions of the Society for British Entomology 5: 1-168.

[3]   Krzemińska E. 2002: A new subgenus and two new species of the genus Trichocera Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Trichoceridae). Annales Zoologici (Warszawa)  52: 201-205.

[4]   Krzemińska E. 2005: Fauna Europaea: Trichoceridae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Nematocera, Fauna Europaea, Version 1.2. http://www.faunaeur.org..

[5]   Starý J. 1998: New species of Trichocera Meigen, 1803, with a re-assessment of the subgenera Trichocera s. str. and  Metatrichocera Dahl, 1966 (Diptera, Trichoceridae). Studia dipterologica 5: 175-186.

[6]   Starý J. 1999: New species of the Trichocera (Metatrichocera) saltator species group (Diptera: Trichoceridae). Entomological Problems 30: 1-10.

[7]   Starý J. 1999: Faunistic records: Trichoceridae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae . In Jedlička L. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 9. Slovak Entomological Society, Bratislava, pp. 187-188.

[8]   Starý J. 2000: Further new species of the Trichocera (Metatrichocera) saltator species group (Diptera, Trichoceridae). Časopis Slezského muzea, Opava (A) 49: 97-104.

[9]   Starý J. 2001: Faunistic records: Trichoceridae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 10. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 45: 185-187.

[10] Starý J. 2002: A new species of the Trichocera (Trichocera) rectistylus species group, and a new  name in Trichocera Meigen, 1803 (Diptera, Trichoceridae). Studia dipterologica 8(2001): 411-414.

[11] Starý J. 2004: Faunistic records from the Czech and Slovak Republics: Trichoceridae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae. In Bitušík P. (ed.): Dipterologica bohemoslovaca Vol. 12. Acta Facultatis Ecologiae 12/Suppl. 1: 155-156.

[12] Starý J. & Krzemińska E. 2000: A new Trichocera from Switzerland and the Czech Republic (Diptera, Trichoceridae). Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 43: 281-283.