Fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaroidea) associated with dead wood and wood growing fungi: new rearing data from Finland and Russian Karelia and general analysis of known larval microhabitats in Europe

Abstract

In this contribution new rearing records of fungus gnats from poorly studied larval microhabitats are presented. From 61 species of wood growing Basidiomycete fungi, 6 species of Ascomycete fungi and slime moulds most of which had not previously been the subject of rearing studies, and from dead wood samples with fungalmyceliamade over a period of 1994–2009 in Finland and Russian Karelia, 110 species of fungus gnats were obtained, 98 of them from identified fungi. Of these for 12 species fungal hosts were formerly unknown and for 30 species larval microhabitats have been discovered for the first time. Numbers of fungus gnat species with known larval microhabitats (a total of 498 species that comprises 45.4% of the European fauna) and numbers of known fungal hosts (some 650 species of macrofungi) are calculated and categorized based on this study and previous records from Europe and East Palaearctic.