Mycetophila sigmoides Loew, 1869*

Jakovlev, Jevgeni, Salmela, Jukka, Polevoi, Alexei, Penttinen, Jouni & Vartija, Noora-Annukka, 2014, Recent noteworthy findings of fungus gnats from Finland and northwestern Russia (Diptera: Ditomyiidae, Keroplatidae, Bolitophilidae and Mycetophilidae), Biodiversity Data Journal 2, pp. 1068-1068 : 1068

Mycetophila sigmoides Loew, 1869*

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: J.Jakovlev; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Nylandia; municipality: Helsinki; locality: Tullisaari, Stansvikin kartano ; decimalLatitude: 60.166; decimalLongitude: 25.027; geodeticDatum: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J.Jakovlev; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2011-6-12 /8-2; habitat: City parks_old protected mansion park in the city of Helsinki with numerous old hollow deciduous trees, mainly lime trees, oaks and maples; Record Level: institutionCode: JJH Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: J.Jakovlev; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Regio aboënsis; municipality: Karjalohja; locality: Karkali_South ; decimalLatitude: 60.238; decimalLongitude: 23.785; geodeticDatum: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J.Jakovlev; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2004-8-23 /10-4; habitat: old-growth forest, herb-ric type; Record Level: institutionCode: JJH

Distribution

Holarctic. The species was described from USA ( Loew 1869) and has been reported from Canada ( Laffoon 1957), Russia (Siberia and Far East, Zaitzev 2003, Karelia, Polevoi and Humala 2005), Czech republic, Hungary ( Chandler 2004), Britain, France and northern Italy ( Gibbs 2009), Norway ( Kjaerandsen and Jordal 2007) and Sweden ( Kjaerandsen 2012). Here reported formally as new for Finland.

Ecology

Larvae are associated with wood-decaying polyporous fungi, Coriolus , Daedaliopsis and Fomitopsis ( Zaitzev 2003, Ševčík 2010). The Finnish collecting site is a hemiboreal herb-rich forest.

Conservation

Red-listed in Norway (DD, Anonymous 2010) and Finland (VU, Penttinen et al. 2010). This species has only been recorded in Britain since 1998 but is now widespread in southern England, suggesting that it is a recent arrival. Records elsewhere in western Europe suggest that it has recently spread and it is possible that its spread into Fennoscandia has also been recent (P.Chandler, pers. comm). An increase in records might therefore be expected, so red-list status may be premature.