Milichiidae of the Lake Kerkini region in Greece

Introduction

The Milichiidae fauna of Greece is virtually unknown, with only Desmometopa m-nigrum, Leptometopa rufifrons and Milichia pubescens (Brake 2000) recorded. However, thanks to the efforts of Gordon Ramel, who maintained several Malaise as well as other traps near Lake Kerkini in northern Greece, close to the border to Bulgaria, this has now changed. Sadly the first parcel with specimens sent to me was lost, so that the absence of data for some traps and times as well as the low numbers in some traps are not necessarily reflecting the original collection.

Why online?

The Milichiidae specimens from the Kerkini Project were identified and the data digitized. Instead of publishing a paper I decided to publish online only, because this enables me to continually update and improve the data for each species, while still enabling the user to view only data from the Kerkini project. Everybody who reads this page and associated pages is welcome to act as a reviewer by adding comments. I will periodically review the comments and incorporate your suggestions into the text.

To add a comment to data on the taxon pages you have to click on the title of the node (e.g. the description, image or specimen). The node will open and at the bottom of the page you can click on 'Add new comment'. If you want to stay anonymous you can just make a comment without logging in (to avoid spam comments, comments are not published immediately, but have to be activated by me first. However, I promise only to delete spam comments, not critical ones). Otherwise you can either state your name in your comment or you register for an account and wait for me to activate your account. As soon as your account is activated you can log in and add comments under your user name.

Lake Kerkini region

Lake Kerkini is an artificial lake, created in 1932 on the river Strymon immediately south of the Greek border with Bulgaria and 80 km north of Thessaloniki. The area was originally an inland delta, a huge marsh where the river unloaded the debris it had collected on its journey past the Ryla and Pirin mountains of Bulgaria, and as a wetland habitat it was unique in Europe. The area is currently a RAMSAR and NATURA2000 site as well as a Wetland of International Importance for birds. (G. Ramel, pers. comm.)

To the north the lake is adjacent to the 2,000 metre Serbo-Macedonian massif (Kerkini mountains) which forms the border with Bulgaria but which is split by the narrow Ruppel Gorge through which the river enters Greece. To the southwest the lake is bordered by the 1,000 metre Mavrovouni mountains.  The nature reserve includes parts of both of these mountain ranges, extending to the summit of the Kerkini mountains, all of the riverine habitat between the border and the lake, about 20 km, and has a total area of about 200 square km. The vegetation of the area is classified as para-mediterraean and mountainous mediterranean. Wetland Kerkini is the largest national park in Greece. (G. Ramel, pers. comm.)

Materials and Methods

The specimens are stored in 70% Ethanol. Most of the specimens are deposited in the Natural History Museum, London, some in the Kerkini collection and some in my personal collection. All specimen data have been digitized and specimen IDs have been given to individual specimens or lots of the same sex. Longitude, latitude and altitude data were measured with a Garmin 12 XL GPS.

Species list

All species in the list are linked to the respective taxon page which shows nomenclatural and taxonomic data, images, citations, a list of specimens and a distribution map showing only data of specimens digitized by me. There is a second link to a static taxon page which shows the respective page at the time of publication of this online paper (all produced on 19. Jan. 2010). For a table of Milichiidae collected in the Kerkini project check http://milichiidae.info/kerkini_table. All together 222 Milichiidae specimens were identified.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Gordon Ramel who collected all the specimens. I am grateful to Paul de Beuk who sorted out Milichiidae and forwarded them to me and to Michael von Tschirnhaus, who sent specimens, which were mistakenly identified as Chloropidae or Agromyzidae. Any comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

How to cite

The first version of this publication was published on 19. January 2010 by Irina Brake. Please cite like this:

Brake, I. 2010: Milichiidae of the Lake Kerkini region in Greece. Milichiidae online, http://milichiidae.info/content/milichiidae-lake-kerkini-region-greece, accessed on [precise date when you last viewed the online publication].

Comments

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/ceee695287630f6aebc32c67acc51190.jpg?d=https%3A//milichiidae.myspecies.info/sites/all/modules/contrib/gravatar/avatar.png&s=100&r=G
Submitted by br on

Phyllomyza sp. Sultanitsa is not linked properly (produces an error page). There is some inconsequence in spelling author names (e.g. Fallén with but Carles-Tolra without an accent). I wonder why the table only containing 219 specimens of the mentioned 1002? Moreover, there are three records with zero count?! How did you implement the table list?

Anyway, your article demonstrates the power of such internet publications!

bjoern

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