Phytomia incisa ( Wiedemann, 1830 )

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A., Ahmad, Syed Kamran, Al-Dhafer, Hathal & Turner, James, 2020, An overview of the Syrphidae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 4855 (1), pp. 1-69 : 48

Phytomia incisa ( Wiedemann, 1830)

( Figs 55–56 )

Eristalis incisa Wiedemann, 1830: 155

Examined specimens. 3♀, 3♂, Fifa, Jebel Fifa, Al Abacia , 1.ii.1983, sweeping, A. Talhouk. S. & Tilkian ( NHMB) .

Distribution. This is the first record from Saudi Arabia. It was described from South Africa and is further recorded from other Afrotropical regions: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo (DR), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tongo, Uganda, Yemen, Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe ( Smith & Vockeroth 1980; Whittington 2003; Smit et al. 2017; De Meyer et al. 2020).

Remarks. De Meyer et al. (2020) has redescribed P. incisa male and female from specimens collected from a wide range of localities in Africa and provided additional, new distributional areas of the species. The identity of P. incisa was double checked with the new key by De Meyer et al. (2020) and it was found to fit well in the key.

Genus Scaeva Fabricius

There are 19 valid species names of the genus Scaeva ( Kassebeer 1999; Thompson 2003). They are mainly distributed in the Palaearctic (with two species reaching the Oriental region and one species the Nearctic region) and Neotropical (four species) regions ( Kassebeer 1999; Thompson 2003; Láska et al. 2006). These flies are predatory in nature with an important role in the bio-control of aphids in different areas of the world ( Láska et al. 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 55–56. Habitus of Phytomia incisa (Wiedemann, 1830). 55) Male doral view, 56) Female, dorsal view.