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Sciomyzidae Fallén, 1820 (Diptera) collected in the Mercantour National Park, France

Jean-Claude VALA & Christopher D. WILLIAMS

en Zoosystema 37 (4) - Pages 611-619

Published on 31 December 2015

This article is a part of the thematic issue Mercantour/Alpi Marittime All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory

Only six species of Sciomyzidae Fallén, 1820, with 106 individuals, have been identified from Malaise traps installed during the ATBI at sites near 1400 and 2000 m in the Mercantour National Park, France. They belong to the subfamilies Phaeomyiinae Steyskal, 1965, represented by Pelidnoptera nigripennis (Fabricius, 1794) and the Sciomyzinae Schiner, 1862 for the other five species. The species are essentially characteristic of open, dry or wet meadows and forest macrohabitats. Pelidnoptera nigripennis larvae are parasitoids of millipedes, while the others are parasitoids or predators of terrestrial snails and slugs. The list given here includes three species (one Tetanocerini and two Sciomyzini Cresson, 1920) already reported from the National Park, where we captured eight specimens of one of them, subsequent to the ATBI period of study. Dichetophora finlandica Verbeke, 1964 is cited for the first time in the Park. The altitudinal distribution of the species is discussed.


Keywords:

Snail-killing flies, altitudinal distribution, Mercantour National Park, France.

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