Checklist of Empididae and Hybotidae ( Diptera ) flies from selected sites in Slovakia ( Central Europe ) , with new records of five species for Slovakia

Abstract: A checklist of Diptera families Empididae and Hybotidae from 25 selected sites in Slovakia is presented. The checklist comprises 91 taxa (51 species of family Empididae and 40 species of family Hybotidae) including the first records of Platypalpus eximius (Oldenberg, 1924) and P. optivus (Collin, 1926) from family Hybotidae, and Hilara lugubris (Zetterstedt, 1819), H. sturmii Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822 and Rhamphomyia (Holoclera) caliginosa Collin, 1926 from family Empididae.


INTRODUCTION
Families Empididae and Hybotidae are closely related families.They are treated together with Atelestidae, Brachystomatidae and Dolichopodidae as a superfamily Empidoidea (Chvála 1983;Sinclair and Cumming 2006), which is nowadays, however, known not to be amonophyletic clade.Both families include very diverse species, clearly differing in the general appearance, body size, general morphology, wing venation and behaviour.They are generally predators, except for some species of Empidinae and Ocydromiinae which are nectar feeders (e.g., Chvála 1983;Collins and Wiegmann 2002).Altogether, 277 empidid species (Chvála 2009a;Oboňa et al. 2014) and 170 hybotid species are currently known to occur in Slovakia (Chvála 2009b).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Specimens were collected by sweep netting on 25 localities (Table 1; Figure 1) sporadically over the years 2013 and 2014 and preserved in 70% ethanol in the field.In laboratory, the flies were identified when still in 70% ethanol.After identification the specimens were put in a vial containing about 1 part 70% ethanol/ 1 part aethyl acetate for 5 minutes, followed by another 5 minutes in a vial containing 1 part 70% ethanol/ 2 parts aethyl acetate.The last bath was finally followed by a rinsing in a vial containing pure aethyl acetate for 5 minutes.After rinsing the specimens were dried on a tissue sheet for 15 minutes.When possible, specimens were double mounted on a minuten pin or, in case of very large flies as Empis (Euempis) tessellata, directly pinned on needles of size 0 and 1. Fragile specimes, as most of the Hybotidae, were glued on triangular cards.And then all individuals were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level using
The first records mentioned above increase the empidid fauna of Slovakia to 280 species and hybotid fauna to 172 species.
general and specialized identification keys of the families Empididae and Hybotidae (e.g.Barták 1982;Grootaert and Chvála 1992;Chvála 2005).All material is deposited in private collection of the first author, all specimens are open to the public.

Table 2 .
van der Weele et al. | Dipterofauna (Empididae and Hybotidae) from selected sites in Slovakia Checklist of Empididae and Hybotidae (Diptera) species from selected sites in Slovakia.Plus sign indicates presence of taxa at each sampling site.Number of sampling site refers to Table1.