Moth flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) of Abkhazia (western Caucasus, Georgia) with some additional faunistic data from Armenia, Georgia, and Russia

: This paper attempts to fill the knowledge gaps in biodiversity of non-biting moth flies in the Caucasus (especially in Abkhazia) and create a suitable basis for subsequent (not only) ecological studies. In total, records of 65 Psychodidae (Sycoracinae – one sp., Psychodinae 64 spp., altogether 33 genera) species/subspecies are presented based on specimens collected mainly in Abkhazia, with some additional data from Armenia, Georgia, and Russia (12 new records). The Psychodidae fauna of Abkhazia now comprises 57 species, 31 of which are newly listed here. The Caucasus region (including the territory of Abkhazia presented here) should be considered the most biologically rich and most endangered region in the world, with an exceptional richness of endemic and endangered species also from the point of view of psychodids biodiversity. Sixteen extremely rare species in this family (probably Caucasus or highland endemics) which need to be given increased attention, whether from the point of view of island ecology or biodiversity protection, have been herein confirmed.

As it is very important to fill these knowledge gaps, the presented research is devoted to expanding knowledge (filling the knowledge gap) of the biodiversity of non-biting Psychodidae of the Caucasus (especially from Abkhazia), thus creating a suitable basis for subsequent, not only ecological, studies.

Material and methods
Moth flies (for concise characteristics and biology, see e.g. Ježek et al., 2019Ježek et al., , 2021b were collected by the first author in Abkhazia (Fig. 1) the summer seasons of 1983, 1985 and 1988 by sweep-netting from vegetation growing in swamps, source areas and along watercourses and water reservoirs, alpine and subalpine habitats, as well as lowland biotopes. P. Chvojka, J. Dlabola and J. Šumpich (National Museum, Prague, Department of Entomology) provided extensive additional material from Georgia, Russia and Armenia.
The captured specimens were preserved in 75% ethanol in the field, and the Psychodidae specimens (cleared in chlorophenol, treated in xylol, and mounted on glass slides in Canada balsam) were identified by J.
Ježek in a laboratory and deposited at the National Museum (Natural History Museum), Department of Entomology, Prague, Czech Republic. The slides are numbered with two separate series of numbers: INS = Inventory Slide Number of the family Psychodidae, and Cat. No. = Catalogue Numbers of slides of types and historical specimens of Diptera and are included in the Diptera collection (National Museum Prague collections -NMPC, see Tkoč et al., 2014).
Identification keys used: Vaillant (1971; Szabó (1983); Withers (1989) and numerous unnamed original papers by different authors with descriptions of new species. The nomenclature is modified from Vaillant (1971 and Wagner (1990Wagner ( , 2019 using the classifications of e.g. Ježek & van Harten (2005, 2009); Ježek (2007) The List of localities section contains the following data: transcript of the site name from the site label, locality number (in parentheses), the currently used site name (if available) and country, more detailed characteristics of the collection habitat, approximate collection coordinates (found according to site descriptions), approximate altitude, habitat vegetation inventory (if available).
The Unpublished records section contains the following data: country, transcript of the site name from the site label, locality number (in parentheses), the number and sex of the samples examined, date, collector's name and collection method (if available) and slides numbers.
The map presented in Fig. 1 is prepared using QGIS software (version: 3.10.10-A Coruña), data derived from the USGS/NASA SRTM providing seamless continuous topography surfaces (Jarvis et al., 2008), and from Natural Earth (free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com).
List of localities (recorded species are summarised in Table 1