Abstract
Of the 19,400 native species and 125 families forming the European diptera fauna, 98 species (less than 0.5%) in 22 families are alien to Europe. Th ese aliens constitute 66 species (18 families) of the suborder Brachycera and 32 species (4 families) of the suborder Nematocera. By family in this category, there are 23 Cecidomyiidae species, 18 Drosophilidae, nine Phoridae, eight Tachinidae and seven Culicidae. Another 32 fl y species belonging to fi ve families are considered to be alien in Europe. Th ese invasives native to other European countries are composed of 14 species of Cecidomyiidae, seven Syrphidae, fi ve Culicidae and three species each of Anthomyiidae and Tephritidae. Th e date of the fi rst record in Europe is known for 84 alien species. Arrivals of alien species of Diptera have accelerated rapidly since the second half of the 20 th century. North America appears to be the dominant contributor of the alien fl ies. Th e majority of alien Diptera were introduced into or within Europe unintentionally, with only three predators released intentionally for biological control. Alien Diptera are predominantly phytophagous (35.6%), while a lesser portion are zoophagous (28.6%) or detrivorous /mycetophagous (29.6%). Ecological impacts on native fauna and fl ora have not been documented for any of the alien species established in Europe. However, 14 alien species have economic impacts on crops.
Highlights
Diptera is one of the largest insect orders, with a worldwide distribution
The alien entomofauna is comparatively very limited with only 98 species observed to date, i.e. less than 0.5% of the total dipteran fauna in Europe
From 1950 to 1974, only seven new alien species (i.e. 0.2 species per year on the average) were recorded. They belong to families Cecidomyiidae (Contarinia citri (Genduso 1963) and Stenodiplosis sorghicola (Starostin et al 1987), both of African origin), Dolichopodidae (Micropygus vagans found in Great Britain in 1970 (Chandler 2004)), Muscidae (a north American predator of house fly, Hydrotaea aenesecens (Saccà 1964)), and Sciaridae (Bradysia difformis recorded from Great Britain in 1965 (White et al 2000) and subsequently found in Northern Europe)
Summary
Diptera is one of the largest insect orders, with a worldwide distribution. The order includes 172 to 179 families (depending on authors) with about 132,000 species described which probably underestimates the actual fauna by at least a half. From 1950 to 1974, only seven new alien species (i.e. 0.2 species per year on the average) were recorded They belong to families Cecidomyiidae (Contarinia citri (Genduso 1963) and Stenodiplosis sorghicola (Starostin et al 1987), both of African origin), Dolichopodidae (Micropygus vagans found in Great Britain in 1970 (Chandler 2004)), Muscidae (a north American predator of house fly, Hydrotaea aenesecens (Saccà 1964)), and Sciaridae (Bradysia difformis recorded from Great Britain in 1965 (White et al 2000) and subsequently found in Northern Europe). In addition to families already represented by alien species such as Phoridae (four species) (Disney 2002, Disney 2004), Cecidomyiidae (four species among which the quickly spreading Obolodiplosis robiniae galling Robinia pseudoacacia (Duso C and Skuhrava 2003) - see factsheet 14.26) (Calvo et al 2006, Gagné 2004, Harris and Goffau 2003), Drosophilidae (three species), Agromyzidae (two species) (Bella et al 2007, Süss 2001), Culicidae (Schaffner et al 2003), Stratiomyidae (Lapeyre and Dauphin 2008) and Ulidiidae (one species each) (Martinez, unpublished), representatives of two new families were observed: Ephydridae shore flies (three species mostly linked to poultry dung) (Gatt and Ebejer 2003) and Canacidae (one species) (Irwin et al 2001)
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