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Minute to small (1.0-3.0 mm), delicate, often
weakly sclerotised flies. Cephalic chaetotaxy reduced, with only
0-2 orbital setae. Antenna with arista having long zigzag rays,
or only minute cilia, rarely completely absent. Thoracic
chaetotaxy also reduced as a rule. Legs small, without
conspicuous setae. Wing relatively narrow, with somewhat reduced
venation. C without breaks; Sc faded distally, not reaching
costa. R4+5 and M convergent apically;
basal (bm-cu) cross-vein, anal (cup) cell and vein A1
absent. Abdomen usually weakly
sclerotised. Gonostyli fused with epandrium, symmetrical to
strongly asymmetrical. Aedeagus tripartite, consisting of
phallophore, mesophallus and distiphallus, the latter long and
thin, sometimes coiled. Female terminalia simple, cerci short,
usually two spermathecae present. Biology poorly known. The
Central European species belong to two, ecologically different
groups. Leiomyza species have mycetophagous larvae (Papp
1998)
developing in the sporocarps of fungi, and occur chiefly in
woodlands. Asteia species are considered to be (phyto)saprophagous
as larvae; adults appear to be associated with shrubby or grassy
habitats, often occurring on flowers. The life-habits of
Astiosoma rufifrons Duda, 1927, are unknown. The species is
characterised by the fumatropic behaviour of the adults, which
are attracted to wood ash after bonfires, especially during the
evening (Chandler
1978).
Altogether 18 species in four genera are
known to occur in Europe and the adjacent island areas (Carles-Tolrá
2007); nine
are listed in the present checklist: eight in the Czech Republic
(seven
in Bohemia, eight in Moravia), and eight in Slovakia). Since the ECV1, the number of species has
not been changed in the Czech Republic, but has been increased by one in
Slovakia (Roháček 2009) The Asteiidae are characterised in detail by Papp (1998),
who has also provided a modern key to Palaearctic genera. The
Central European species can be identified using Chandler (1978), Merz
(1996)
and Gibbs
and.Papp (2007) There is no comprehensive treatment of the Asteiidae in the
Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the published faunistic data
are scattered in a number of papers: see Roháček and Barták
(2001) for a review. The nomenclature used here follows that in Papp
(1984) and the Fauna Europaea
(Carles-Tolrá
2007).
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