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The Xylophagidae are slender, basal Brachycera
reaching lengths of 6.6-19.0 mm, with short hairs and without
bristles. Antennal flagellum consisting of 7-8 flagellomeres, the
last one short and rounded; clypeus flat and palpi clavate; vein C
surrounding entire wing and R5 ending near
wing tip; all tibiae with spurs. The larvae possess a deeply
sclerotised conical head capsule and sclerotised plates on the
thorax and the terminal segment. The larvae live as saproxylic
predators of other insect larvae under bark and in decaying wood.
The adults are therefore not too rare in deciduous forests and along
their margins.
Five species are known from Europe (Rozkošný
2007), four of them occur in the Czech Republic and three in
Slovakia; no additional
species has been recorded since the PCV2 (Rozkošný
1997). General information on the morphology, biology and
development was recently summarised by Nagatomi and Rozkošný (1997).
Identification keys to the adults of Central European species are
included in studies by Trojan (1956)
and Krivosheina and Mamaev (1972).
The larvae can be identified according to the latter authors (Krivosheina
& Mamaev 1966). Chandler (1998)
designated a lectotype for Xylophagus ater Meigen, 1804 and
found that this species is identical with X. compeditus as
treated in the recent European literature. For the species known as
X. ater of authors (not Meigen, 1804), the name
X. kowarzi
(Pleske, 1925) is used (Rozkošný
2007,
Rozkošný et al. 2005).
For financial support,
the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic and the Masaryk
University (grant No. MSM 0021622416 ) are acknowledged.
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