Eristalinus taeniops ( Wiedemann, 1818 )

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 : 22-23

Eristalinus taeniops ( Wiedemann, 1818)

( Fig. 21 )

Eristalis taeniops Wiedemann, 1818: 42

Examined specimens. 1♂, Asir, Abha, Hay Al-Nusub , 9–30.v.2014, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( CRES) ; 1♀, same locality but 19.vi.–9.vii.2014 ( CERS) ; 1♂, Jazan, Fifa, Jebel Fifa, Al Abacia , 1.ii.1983, A. Talhouk & S.Tilkian ( KSMA) ; 2♂, 2♀, Al-Riyadh, Ad Dir‘iyah , 20 Km. W. Al-Riyadh, 5.vi.1993, grass, AbdelAziz ( KSMA) ; 1♂, same locality but 30.vi.1991, Al-Omrani ( KSMA) ; 2♀, same locality but 1.v.1992, Al-Ahmad ( KSMA) ; 1♂, same locality but 1.xii.1992, grass ( KSMA) ; 1♂, same locality but 19.x.1989, alfalfa, Amr ( KSMA) ; 1♀, same locality but 25.x.1989 ( KSMA) ; 1♀, same locality but 22.ii.1989 ( KSMA) ; 1♀, Al-Riyadh, Al Muzahimiyah , 31.iii.1993, grass, Al-Saleh ( KSMA) ; 1♀, Al-Riyadh, Al-Uyaynah , 45 Km. W. Al-Riyadh, 14.ii.1993, Al-Saleh ( KSMA) ; 3♂, 8♀, Asir, Abha, Wadi Abha , 28.iv.2011, sweeping, M. Sharaf ( KSMA) .

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Abu-Zoherah et al. (1993) and recently by El-Hawagry et al. (2017). It was described from South Africa and also recorded from the following areas: Afrotropical Region: Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Socotra, Tanzania, Transcaucasus in eastern parts of the Afrotropical region down to South Africa (inclusive), United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Zimbabwe ( Rhodesia); Palaearctic Region: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Canary Islands, Cyprus, Egypt, southern France (including Corsica), Greece (including Crete and Rhodes), Iran, Israel, Italy (including Serdina, Lampedusa and Sicily), Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia; Oriental Region: northern India, Nepal and parts of Pakistan ( Smith & Vockeroth 1980; Peck 1988; Dirickx 1994; Whittington 2003; Birtele et al. 2010; Naderloo et al. 2011; Khosravian et al. 2015; Speight 2020; Smit et al. 2017; Haffaressas et al. 2017; Mebarkia et al. 2020).

Remarks. The larvae of E. taeniops are found in standing water containing decaying plant material (e.g. pine needles) or rotting animal carcasses and also in running water contaminated by pig manure ( Haffaressas et al. 2017; Speight 2020). Pérez-Bañóni et al. (2003b) described the larvae and puparia of E. taeniops for the first time, including new morphological characters of the thoracic respiratory process. In addition, they described the morphology of the male genitalia of E. taeniops and compared it with that of E. megacephalus .

Genus Eumerus Meigen

The genus Eumerus is one of the most diverse genera within the Syrphidae , distributed mainly in the arid and semi-arid regions of Eurasia and Africa with approximately 300 described species ( Chroni et al. 2017). There are more than 170 species of Eumerus in the Palaearctic region and 70 species in the Afrotropical region ( Peck 1988; Kuznetzov 1992; Whittington 2003; Grković et al. 2015; Ricarte et al. 2017; Speight 2020; Garcete-Barrett et al. 2020). Most species of Eumerus are thermophilous and most of them fly quickly near the ground, which makes them difficult to spot ( van Veen 2004). The larvae are phytophages and they are considered as pests in commercial bulb plantations attacking pulpy stems and plant organs ( Mutin 2016), causing economic damage to bulbs, stems, roots, or tubers of Amaryllidaceae , Apiaceae , Asteraceae , Iridaceae , Liliaceae and Solanaceae ( Thompson et al. 2010; Ohara 2012; Ricarte et al. 2017).

Figures

FIGURE 21. Habitus of Eristalinus taeniops (Wiedemann, 1818). Female, dorsal view.