The Scatopsidae (Diptera) of Sardinia, with description of a new species

摘要

Eleven species of the family Scatopsidae are reported from Sardinia, 10 of which for the first time, from collections made in the Marganai area (Carbonia-Iglesias province) and some additional material. Swammerdamella spinigera sp. nov., closely related to S. pediculata (Duda, 1928), is described and figured. The state of knowledge of the Sardinian fauna and its affinities are discussed. Scatopsidae are minute to small, rather strongly built midges which occur in various habitats. They are more frequent and diverse in open, temperate, fresh and marshy areas. The immature stages of only few genera and species have been described. All known larvae are saprophagous, living in different kinds of decaying organic matter, e.g. rotting plants, dead wood, under bark of dead trees, in fungi, soil, leaf litter, dung, etc. (see Haenni and Vaillant (1994) for a review of the immature stages of the family).