The two European species of vertebrate blood-feeding biting midges of the subgenus Lasiohelea Kieffer, 1921 of the genus Forcipomyia Meigen, 1918 are taxonomically reviewed. They are Forcipomyia (Lasiohelea) velox (Winnertz, 1852), whose adult females feed on amphibians, and F. (L.) sibirica (Buyanova, 1962), which obtain blood from humans. Adults of both species are diagnosed, redescribed and illustrated. Forcipomyia sibirica is a boreo-montane Palearctic species which, in Europe, mostly occurs in mountain areas, and is very similar to the eastern Palearctic F. (L.) nipponica (Tokunaga, 1940). Forcipomyia velox is common in western Palearctic lowlands. Forcipomyia (L.) cultella (Yu et Xiang, in Yu 1988) from China is recognized as a junior synonym of F. velox (Winnertz, 1852), and F. (L.) ussurica Remm, 1971 from the Russian Far East is recognized as a junior synonym of F. (L.) longicornis (Tokunaga, 1940) from Japan. New synonymies. Forcipomyia sibirica from Romania and F. longicornis from North Korea are reported for the first time.