Checklist of the family Sciaridae (Diptera) of Finland.

A checklist of the family Sciaridae (Diptera) recorded from Finland is provided. The genus Sciarosoma Chandler with a disputed family placement is also included in the list.

Introduction

, the black fungus gnats, is one of the large families in , little studied and notoriously difficult in its taxonomy. Up-to-date keys are not available for all European species, but various publications must be consulted for identification. Our knowledge of Finnish fauna stems from two classic publications: Frey (1948) and Tuomikoski (1960) but Menzel and Mohrig (2000) made fundamental nomenclatorial changes in their study of the type materials of all Palaearctic species.

As no records of in Finland were published between the publication of Tuomikoski’s (1960) monograph on the family and Hackman’s (1980) check-list PageBreakof Finnish nematoceran , the species lists in both works are essentially unchanged, despite some obvious lapses in the latter. Our knowledge of Finnish fauna has since grown mainly in the taxonomic treatment of various genera and species groups (see Vilkamaa et al. 2013). All species recorded in Finland in publications thus far, besides the most recent ones, appear in H. Silfverberg’s compilations of changes to the Finnish insect fauna published every five years (for the latest one, see Silfverberg 2012).

With regard to nomenclature and generic classification, the present list follows the revisions of Menzel and Mohrig (2000) and Mohrig et al. (2013), although on the basis of phylogenetic analyses Tuomikoski, Tuomikoski, Kieffer, Frey and Frey are regarded as genera (see Vilkamaa 2000, 2003, Vilkamaa and Hippa 2005, Shin et al. 2013). For names currently understood as junior synonyms, mostly only the names listed as valid in Tuomikoski (1960) are mentioned. For complete synonym lists, one can consult Menzel and Mohrig (2000) and Mohrig et al. (2013). Although some genera can be regarded as relatively well-known for the Finnish species they contain, for some others, such as the species-rich Winnertz, many new species including undescribed ones may be present in the native fauna. Even so, together with Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, Finland can be considered one of the countries best known for its sciarid fauna.

Number of species:

World: 2600 species

Europe: 700 species

Finland: 338 species

Faunistic knowledge level in Finland: average

Checklist

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Excluded species