S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 58. (Budapest, 1997)

ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LVIII 1997 pp. 137-146 Sphyracephala europaea sp. n. (Diptera: Diopsidae) from Hungary represents a family new to Europe* L. Papp, M. Földvári and P. Paulovics Sphyracephala europaea sp. n. (Diptera: Diopsidae) from Hungary represents a family new to Europe - Sphyracephala europaea L. Papp et Földvári, sp. n., is described from Szeged, Hungary. The adults were caught on their overwintering sites. The morphological features and those of the genitalia are described in comparison to those of Sphyracephala brevicornis Say (Nearctic) and S. babac/janidesi Zaitzev (Armenia). With 13 figures. The diopsids or stalk-eyed flies are mostly a tropical-subtropical group of 13 genera and c. 160 known species (for reviews see Shillito 1971, Steyskal 1972, Peterson 1987 and Feijen 1989). There is only the genus Sphyracephala Say, 1828, occurring in the Palaearctic region with three known species in the Palaearctic areas: S. beccarii Rondani, 1873, an Afrotropical species with one questionable record from Algeria, S. babadjanidesi Zaitzev, 1919 from Transcaucasia (Armenia) and S. nigrimana Loew, 1873 from the Amur region (Far East Russia and Manchuria). The only (or the last) revision of the Palaearctic species was given by Hennig (1941). Recently, Ohara (1993) reported Sphyracephala detrahens (Walker, 1860) (formerly Pseudodiopsis, syn. cothurnata Bigot, 1874) from South Japan (Ryukyu Islands) and published figures on its male and female genitalia. Feijen (1989) in his monograph gave a key to genera and an annotated list of known genera and species. Otherwise there is no other modern paper on the Palaearctic species. We must note (or rather, to confess) that the family was mistakenly left out from the Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera (cf. Soós and Papp 1984, Vols 9 and 10). The senior author of this paper is not free of the responsibility of this fault. Actually the editors of the Catalogue followed the famous "Opredelitel' nasekomykh evropejskoj chasti SSSR", wherein the family Diopsidae was not included, since Armenia, the type-locality of Sphyracephala babadjanidesi, or the Far East Russia, the type-locality of S. nigrimana, are not in Europe. There is no explanation though, why they did not recognise the Lindner's series with Hennig's (1941) excellent diopsid chapter. On the 15th of October 1996, one of the authors of this paper, P. Paulovics was to make overwintering holes for bats in the high bank of the Maros river, near its estuary to the Tisza river at Szeged. During his work on the wall, he observed small flies sitting on and flying along the wall. He saw several hundreds of those flies, which were sitting mainly at the entrance of small holes in the wall made by hymenopterans, and he caught one just to know what they are. That female specimen was identified and so we returned to the site on the 26th of April, 1997. The Sphyracephala specimens - though less nu* This paper is regarded as one of the first results in the project "Large blank spots in the Diptera fauna of Hungary".