Checklist of the Dolichopodidae (Diptera, Empidoidea) of the Balkan Peninsula, with first records for Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and for the European part of Turkey.

This paper presents 58 new records of the family Dolichopodidae for Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia and European part of Turkey, collected from 37 localities. Seventeen species are recorded for the first time from Bulgaria, six of which are new to the Balkan Peninsula, 23 species for European Turkey, three of which are new to the entire territory of Turkey, seven species for Montenegro and 11 species for North Macedonia. A checklist of the Dolichopodidae of the Balkan Peninsula is provided. The total number of dolichopodids of the Balkan Peninsula is currently raised to 288 species.

Two new species of Thrypticus Gerstäcker from Turkey (Diptera, Dolichopodidae), with checklist and key to Palaearctic species.

Thrypticus caeruleus Naglis Negrobov sp. nov. and T. kechevi Naglis Negrobov sp. nov. are newly described from Turkey. Thrypticus viridis Parent is redescribed and the hypopygium is figured in detail. A revised checklist and key to males of Palaearctic species of the genus Thrypticus Gerstäcker including 26 valid species are provided. Thrypticus paludicola Negrobov is restored from synonymy with T. intercedens Negrobov based on hypopygial differences. Thrypticus tonsus Negrobov is regarded as new synonym of T. subtilis Negrobov.

Comprehensive inventory of true flies (Diptera) at a tropical site.

Estimations of tropical insect diversity generally suffer from lack of known groups or faunas against which extrapolations can be made, and have seriously underestimated the diversity of some taxa. Here we report the intensive inventory of a four-hectare tropical cloud forest in Costa Rica for one year, which yielded 4332 species of Diptera, providing the first verifiable basis for diversity of a major group of insects at a single site in the tropics. In total 73 families were present, all of which were studied to the species level, providing potentially complete coverage of all families of the order likely to be present at the site. Even so, extrapolations based on our data indicate that with further sampling, the actual total for the site could be closer to 8000 species. Efforts to completely sample a site, although resource-intensive and time-consuming, are needed to better ground estimations of world biodiversity based on limited sampling.

Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science.

Study of all flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 x 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1,600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,332 species. This amounts to more than half the number of named species of flies for all of Central America. Specimens were collected with two Malaise traps running continuously and with a wide array of supplementary collecting methods for three days of each month. All morphospecies from all 73 families recorded were fully curated by technicians before submission to an international team of 59 taxonomic experts for identification.        Overall, a Malaise trap on the forest edge captured 1,988 species or 51% of all collected dipteran taxa (other than of Phoridae, subsampled only from this and one other Malaise trap). A Malaise trap in the forest sampled 906 species. Of other sampling methods, the combination of four other Malaise traps and an intercept trap, aerial/hand collecting, 10 emergence traps, and four CDC light traps added the greatest number of species to our inventory. This complement of sampling methods was an effective combination for retrieving substantial numbers of species of Diptera. Comparison of select sampling methods (considering 3,487 species of non-phorid Diptera) provided further details regarding how many species were sampled by various methods.        Comparison of species numbers from each of two permanent Malaise traps from Zurquí with those of single Malaise traps at each of Tapantí and Las Alturas, 40 and 180 km distant from Zurquí respectively, suggested significant species turnover. Comparison of the greater number of species collected in all traps from Zurquí did not markedly change the degree of similarity between the three sites, although the actual number of species shared did increase.        Comparisons of the total number of named and unnamed species of Diptera from four hectares at Zurquí is equivalent to 51% of all flies named from Central America, greater than all the named fly fauna of Colombia, equivalent to 14% of named Neotropical species and equal to about 2.7% of all named Diptera worldwide. Clearly the number of species of Diptera in tropical regions has been severely underestimated and the actual number may surpass the number of species of Coleoptera.        Various published extrapolations from limited data to estimate total numbers of species of larger taxonomic categories (e.g., Hexapoda, Arthropoda, Eukaryota, etc.) are highly questionable, and certainly will remain uncertain until we have more exhaustive surveys of all and diverse taxa (like Diptera) from multiple tropical sites.        Morphological characterization of species in inventories provides identifications placed in the context of taxonomy, phylogeny, form, and ecology. DNA barcoding species is a valuable tool to estimate species numbers but used alone fails to provide a broader context for the species identified.

Dolichopodidae (Diptera) from the Iberian Peninsula, with description of three new species.

Faunistic data is given for 43 species of Dolichopodidae from the Iberian Peninsula. Altogether nine species are recorded for the first time from Portugal and six species from Spain. Three species are described as new to science: Chrysotimus meridionalis sp. nov. (Spain, Portugal), Hercostomus ibericus sp. nov. (Spain), and Sciapus negrobovi sp. nov. (Portugal).

Two new species of Medetera Fischer von Waldheim (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) from Russia and Mongolia.

Two new species Medetera sakhalinensis Negrobov & Naglis sp. nov. from Russian Far East (Sakhalin) and M. emeljanovi Negrobov & Naglis sp. nov. from Mongolia are described and differential diagnosis are given.

Phoomyia, a new genus of Dolichopodinae from the Oriental Region (Diptera: Dolichopodidae).

Phoomyia Naglis & Grootaert gen. nov. is described to include two new species of beach-dwelling dolichopodine flies from coastal Sri Lanka and Thailand: Phoontyia srilankensis Naglis & Brooks sp. nov. and Phoomnyia thailandensis Naglis & Grootaert sp. nov. The new genus is closely related to the genera Argyrochlamys Lamb and Pseudargyrochlamys Grichanov, and is distinguished based on characters of the hind leg, and features of the male and female terminalia. Adults of Phoomyia are found on sandy coastal beaches often near the burrows of ghost crabs.