Simuliidae Newman, 1834

Black flies are small, robust flies with a body 1.2-6.0 mm long, blackish-brown or dark grey (with some exceptions). Head mostly holoptic in males, dichoptic in females, ocelli absent, orthognathous, mouthparts piercing-sucking, different in the two sexes as well as in bloodsucking and non-bloodsucking species, palp five-segmented, antenna short, thick, 9-11 segmented. Thorax robust, short, arched dorsally; legs short, stout, all three pairs subequal, tibiae with 1-2 spurs, tarsi five-segmented, two terminal claws; wings short and broad with large anal lobe, membrane usually hyaline, with microtrichia, anterior tubular veins strong, open veins weak and forming surface ridges only, Cu2 mostly sigmoid; two cross-veins present; halteres knob-like. Abdomen elongated, broad at base, ten-segmented, with sclerotized tergites and membraneous pleura and sternum, first segment reduced; male terminalia not rotated, gonopods large, aedeagus complex, projecting distally between gonopods, ventral plate heavily sclerotized; in female, eighth sternite forming genital plate and bearing a pair of terminal ovipositor valves separated by an ovipositor notch. The larva is cylindrical worm-like, eucephalic, apneustic, apodous but with thoracic and abdominal prolegs; they are filter feeders (with cephalic fans) or scrapers. The pupa is obtect, with mostly filamentous spiracular gills, in a cocoon. The larvae and pupae are aquatic, sedentary, and inhabit different substrates in running waters of various type. The adults are nectar and sap feeders, but females of the majority of species are bloodsuckers and act as vectors of nematode and protozoan parasites to man, other mammals and birds.

Nearly 1800 extant species are known (Adler & Crosskey 2009), with 231 species known from Europe (Crosskey 2007); 49 species are included in the present checklist: 43 species from the Czech Republic (33 from Bohemia, 43 from Moravia) and 46 from Slovakia. The fauna of Moravia and Slovakia is well known at the morphospecies level, but new records are expected from Bohemia. The Central European species can be identified using recent keys (Jedlička & Stloukalová 1997, Jedlička et al. 2004, Knoz 1965, 1980, Lechthaler & Car 2006).