Fauna Europaea: Diptera – Brachycera

Abstract

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all extant multicellular European terrestrial and freshwater animals and their geographical distribution at the level of countries and major islands (east of the Urals and excluding the Caucasus region). The Fauna Europaea project comprises about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. Fauna Europaea represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing taxonomic specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many user communities in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. The Diptera–Brachycera is one of the 58 Fauna Europaea major taxonomic groups, and data have been compiled by a network of 55 specialists.Within the two-winged insects (Diptera), the Brachycera constitute a monophyletic group, which is generally given rank of suborder. The Brachycera may be classified into the probably paraphyletic 'lower brachyceran grade' and the monophyletic Eremoneura. The latter contains the Empidoidea, the Apystomyioidea with a single Nearctic species, and the Cyclorrhapha, which in turn is divided into the paraphyletic 'aschizan grade' and the monophyletic Schizophora. The latter is traditionally divided into the paraphyletic 'acalyptrate grade' and the monophyletic Calyptratae. Our knowledge of the European fauna of Diptera–Brachycera varies tremendously among families, from the reasonably well known hoverflies (Syrphidae) to the extremely poorly known scuttle flies (Phoridae). There has been a steady growth in our knowledge of European Diptera for the last two centuries, with no apparent slow down, but there is a shift towards a larger fraction of the new species being found among the families of the nematoceran grade (lower Diptera), which due to a larger number of small-sized species may be considered as taxonomically more challenging.Most of Europe is highly industrialised and has a high human population density, and the more fertile habitats are extensively cultivated. This has undoubtedly increased the extinction risk for numerous species of brachyceran flies, yet with the recent re-discovery of Thyreophora cynophila (Panzer), there are no known cases of extinction at a European level. However, few national Red Lists have extensive information on Diptera.For the Diptera–Brachycera, data from 96 families containing 11,751 species are included in this paper.

DNA metabarcoding reveals changes in the contents of carnivorous plants along an elevation gradient

“…We found a small but significant positive correlation between distance matrices of community composition and elevation. Previous studies of invertebrate fauna in the Alps have found changes in community composition at higher elevations, for example, reports of an increase in the proportion of Diptera relative to other orders (Pape et al., ), and a decrease in the species richness of wild bees (Hoiss, Krauss, Potts, Roberts, & Steffan‐Dewenter, ). Studies to date have been based on populations of free‐living invertebrates, whereas here we examined the contents of a carnivorous plant.…”

New records of Sarcophagidae from Turkey (Diptera)

“…Previously, 132 species of Sarcophagidae were listed from Turkey (Hayat et al 2008; Kara and Pape 2002; Koçak 2014; Koçak and Kemal 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015; Pape et al 2015; Pekbey 2011; Pekbey and Hayat 2011; Whitmore, 2011; Whitmore et al 2013). Our findings increase this number to 154.…”

New records of Muscidae (Diptera) from Mediterranean countries

“…For this reason some of the records presented in this paper are not actually new even though they do not appear on the Fauna Europaea site. Moreover, the Fauna Europaea website did not separate Serbia and Montenegro (Pape et al 2015). …”