| Description |
Four hundred and seventy-four species of the family Tachinidae are currently known from the Czech Republic (VAŇHARA et al. 2004, TSCHORSNIG et al. 2005, MUCKSTEIN et al. in press), and about 800 species are known from Europe (TSCHORSNIG & RICHTER 1998). Species of the family Tachinidae are parasitoids, mostly developing in other insects, e.g. in species of orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Dermaptera, Ensifera, Caelifera), however, also in further groups of arthropods (e.g. Chilopoda, Diplopoda). Thus, many species are associated with species of insects that are endangered (e.g. of families Papilionidae, Scarabaeidae, Carabidae, etc.), so that their parasitoids also belong to vanishing species. Thus, their protection can be implemented through the mediation of protecting other insects, e.g. large species of Lepidoptera or protection of exceptional biotopes and ecosystems. Unfortunately, in many species of Tachinidae, we do not know their hosts at all, see e.g. HERTING (1960) and TSCHORSNIG & HERTING (1994). Thus, arrangement of a list of endangered species of the Tachinidae is a very complicated task. In addition to the group of missing species, into each group it is possible to select as much as tens of further species with respect to the rate of their occurrence. When classing in this way the 462 still known species, they include in accordance with existing knowledge for Central Europe (TSCHORSNIG & HERTING 1994) 21% of very rare species (i.e. category including less than 10 known records) and 26% of rare species (i.e. 10 to 20 records) and this means that almost half our species (i.e. 218 species) should enjoy a certain degree of protection. For establishing this degree, further and long-term study of this group will be necessary.
|