Pallopteridae Loew, 1862

Small to medium-sized flies with a body length ranging from 2.5 to 6.0 mm, varying in colour from yellow to black, often with dark markings on the wings. Head mostly with only one upper orbital bristle, poc parallel or slightly diverging, vibrissae absent. Wing with complete vein Sc and evenly concave outer margin of cell cup. For further details on the adult morphology, see Merz (1998). The known larvae are very similar to those of Lonchaeidae. They are elongate-cylindrical, rather smooth, with only a few ventral creeping spines. The larvae have two distinct trophic strategies: those forming the first group live in plants and are either phytophagous or carnivorous or a combination of both, and those forming the second group live under bark where they are carnivorous, preying upon the larvae of bark beetles or other insects. For further details on the larval morphology, see Merz (1998).

Altogether 23 species are known to occur in Europe (Merz 2007; 16 are listed in the present checklist: 15 in the Czech Republic (15 in Bohemia, 12 in Moravia) and 14 in Slovakia. Since the ECV1, the number of species has increased by one species (Barták et al. 2009). The faunistics of both the Czech and Slovak species are rather well studied.

The basic characteristics of the family are given by Merz (1998). There is no published key enabling the identification of all central European species, however, key by Morge (1967) is still useful. The nomenclature in the Fauna Europaea (Merz 2007) is used in the present checklist.

This paper was partly supported by IRP MSM 6046070901 (Ministry of education, youth and sports).