The dipterous family Agromyzidae is named after their larval life-habits: most of the species producing mines on plant leaves. Agromyzid flies live also on cultivated plants on plough-lands, ornamentals and in green-houses, causing significant damage rather frequently. In light of this, it is really not easy to understand, why so few specialists work on them.
The classical workers, including Friedrich Hendel, the highly eminent specialists of Agromyzidae worked in the belief that species can be separated based on their external characteristics. Unfortunately, this is not true as for a significant part of the species. Beginning with the 1960s Kenneth A. Spencer and some other dipterists (Griffiths, Nowakowski, and others) began to prepare the male postabdomen and used genital characteristics in the separation of the species.
The first published Hungarian data on Agromyzidae can be found in Szépligeti’s (1895) and Sajó’s (1896) paper. Thalhammer’s (1900) list in the Fauna Regni Hungariae also contains data on Agromyzidae species.
A minor part of Thalhammer’s collection survived the 2nd World War and also the big fire in the Hungarian Natural History Museum in November 1956. Unfortunately almost all they are in very poor state of preservation and with a few exceptions all are misidentified.
Luckily for the later studies Dr. Kálmán Kertész sent out the Agromyzidae material to Professor Friedrich Hendel before the 1st World War. Consequently, in his magnum opus Hendel (1931–1936) used all the data of his identifications on the Hungarian material, describing even new species. Fortunately, no harm for that material occurred in Vienna and it was returned to Budapest in the 1980s.
In the first half of the 20th century Surányi (1942) published a paper on Hungarian insect mines including Agromyzidae. The paper is based mainly on his own collection in 1940–1941. The problem with this paper is not that mines are not always proper for the safe identification, but that his herbarium was lost, so no voucher specimens are available.
Most of the publications on agromyzids in the Hungarian plant protection literature in the 20th century up to ca 1980 are not reliable enough owing to difficulties in identification. Darvas and Papp (1985) published a longer paper on the morphology of agromyzid pests on wheat and barley in Hungary. Darvas et al. (1988) published a paper on Napomyza gymnostoma as pest in Hungary. Darvas (1994) published a summary of the agromyzid pests of Hungary, referring to 37 species. Darvas and Papp (2000) wrote the chapter on exotic pests in the Manual of Palaearctic Diptera, referring to some species occurring also in Hungary. K. A. Spencer’s and V. V. Zlobin’s papers also contain some important data for the Hungarian Agromyzidae.
In 2001 the publication of the Checklist of the Diptera of Hungary was a significant milestone. In this volume Papp and Černý (2001) listed 195 Agromyzidae species for the Hungarian fauna. Later Papp (2004, 2009, 2010) added some further species to that number.
To fill in the gaps in our knowledge the ambitious project "Agromyzidae of Hungary" was initiated in 2013. László Papp and Miloš Černý decided to elaborate the agromyzid fauna of Hungary, which being a Central European country, may result in identification keys and other information also for the countries in the central belt of Europe.
The work is based mainly on specimens deposited in the Diptera Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum but other voucher specimens are also considered. Producing high quality illustrations is a key point in the project. Results of the project is planned to be published in four volumes.