Structure

The division into families and the order thereof generally follows McAlpine, Manual of Nearctic Diptera, Vol. 3 [107]. Within each family we have tried to present the genera in a proper systematic order - in some cases this is just the order in Hackman's original list[62], but if a more modern reference work has been available it is followed. The source is usually evident from the reference numbers after each name. Phylogenetic structure of some families (f.ex. Phoridae and Anthomyiidae) is still poorly known. In these cases the genera are simply listed in alphabetical order. Generally little is known about the true relationships of species-level taxons and thus the list of species for each genus is always alphabetical. This doesn't mean that the proper systematic order is the alphabetical one!

Some family lists are preceded by a short note. Here the current status of knowledge of this particular family in Finland is noted. Comments on the available identifying literature are also included as are notes on the taxonomic position of the family, if it is unclear or differs from McAlpine's system.

Each record starts with the name of the taxon, the author's name, and the year of description. The valid name may be followed by one or more additional names used for the same taxon. These names can be younger synonyms, preoccupied names, misidentifications, or recults of common misuse of names in Finnish or international literature.

Species with no confirmed records from the modern Finnish area (listed in Hackman's original paper as unsure, or otherwise unconfirmed) are marked with a question mark (?) after the species name. We hope to reduce the number of question marks in the lists but they will unfortunately never disappear for good. Footnotes are marked by a number located between the name and the author information and are thus separated from the reference codes by the author's name and year.

Bibliographical information is included in the species listings. A numerical superscript notation has been adopted. This allows us to keep the list as compact as possible. The reference is located at the end of each record. Generally reference is made only to the following types of publifications:

1. Previous checklists of Finnish diptera (Frey & Storå 1941[40], Hackman 1980[62]).
2. The first paper to mention the species in question from Finland. Records based on misidentifications are not accepted. If the species has been lost for the Finnish fauna (f. ex. by changes of borders) and later re-reported, the latter paper is also referred here

The refs are still very much work in progress and the level of accuracy varies significantly between families. As this is a draft version there are some records that are otherwise quite doubtful in one way or another: unchecked synonymizations or splits; wild variation in spelling of names in the perused literature; newly reported and unconfirmed records; suprising claims in older lists or just plain sillines.

A very abbreviated and uncomplete list of imports reported from Finland is provided as an appendix.

As a rule all author names are fully spelled out. A few very common names have been abbreviated as follows:

Abbreviation	Full name
Zett.	Zetterstedt
R.-D.	Robineau-Desvoidy

Table 1: New lists of the Diptera fauna in North and Central European Countries. Some lists choose to include also expected, but unrecorded species. The number of species shown here includes only the confirmed speces for each country.

Country	Editor(s)	Year	No. of species (flies/all diptera)
Iceland	Ólafsson[132]	1991	?/?
Poland	Razowski	1991	?/6620
Belgium	Grootaert et al.	1991	?/4474
Check Republic	Chvála[29]	1997	?/?
Slovak Republic	Chvála[29]	1997	?/?
Switzerland	Merz et al.[110]	1998	4115/6088
Great Britain	Chandler[24]	1998	?/?
Ireland	Chandler[24]	1998	?/?
Germany	Schumann et al.[156]	1999	?/$\approx$8600
Lithuania	Pakalniškis et al.[134]	2000	?/2283
Denmark	Petersen & Meier[143]	2001	3034/4361
Hungary	Papp	2001	$\approx$ 4090/$\approx$ 1460
the Netherlands	Beuk	2002	3324/4967
Finland	This study	200?	$\approx$ 3600/?