Sciaridae (Diptera, Sciaroidea) collection of the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine

Study Extent

The dataset contains the biodata of Sciaridea collection is kept in the funds of I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine (SIZK_Sciaridae). All specimens are permanent micropreparats (slides) mounted and fixed in the artificial resin Euparal. Each slide contains only one male imago (adult) sciarid, and only in a very few cases in the slides presented several imagoes (males and/or females) or in addition empty puparium. Sciaridae collection of SIZK covers almost the whole territory of Ukraine (excluding Crimea and Luhansk Region) and various habitat types both natural and anthropogenic. Some specimens were collected in neighboring countries, such as Hungary and so on. Identification of all species in the dataset was verified by comparison with the voucher specimens and confirmed by the leading taxonomists of Sciaridae.

Sampling

Successful identification to the species level in Sciaridae is possible only based on careful studying of male imago, especially of genitalia structure. Thus, only males are useful for further preparation and examination. Sciarids or black fungus gnats are small (length of imago up to 8 mm), mainly dark-colored insects. Their larvae usually develop in rotting plant remains permeated by fungal hyphae. Typical habitats for sciarids are shaded forests and wet meadows, but some species can migrate from the natural biotopes to anthropogenic ecosystems and live as synanthropes. Therefore, our Sciaridae collections focused on different grasslands and forest habitats. The material was collected in a number of expeditions and excursions carried out during the field seasons of the years 2012 - 2022. Adult sciarids were collected with a sweepnet, Malaise and Mouricke traps or directly from the substrate with an aspirator. Collected gnats were stored in 5 ml vials containing 70 % ethanol. During preparation in the laboratory, the male specimens were dehydrated in absolute ethanol and then mounted on slides in Euparal. For identification, specimens were studied with MBS-9 and PZO Biolar microscopes. All of the material is kept in the funds of I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv (SIZK) as a separate Sciaridae collection.

Quality Control

One of the most important steps in Sciaridae studying is verifying of correction of specimen identification. Therefore, all newly recorded species in Ukraine or new species in our collection need to be compared with the type specimen or at least the voucher specimen whose identification is undoubted. Also, we were using the OpenRefine (https://openrefine.org/) for checking the data quality and GBIF species matching tool (https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup) for the taxonomic checking opensource software.

Method steps

1. Selection of the sites.
2. Collection of material in the field.
3. Slides preparation in the laboratory.
4. Specimen identification.
5. Verifying the newly recorded species by comparison with voucher specimens during the workshop.
6. Cataloging identified specimens and dataset preparation.
7. Data checking and cleaning.
8. Publication biodata on the GBIF.

The dataset covers only the species range of the Sciaridae family.

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Arthropoda
   rank: phylum
3. Insecta
   rank: class
4. Diptera
   rank: order
5. Sciaridae
   rank: family

The dataset covers the almost entire territory of Ukraine, excluding the Crimea and Luhansk Region. Also, collections from Hungary include in this dataset.