Usia aenea (Rossi, 1794)

Arabyat, Sahar, Katbeh-Bader, Ahmad & Greathead, David, 2004, The bee flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae) of Jordan, Zootaxa 654, pp. 1-48 : 10

Usia aenea (Rossi, 1794)

Material: 140 specimens: Al Aridah 4.III.2002 (10Ψ, 2ɗ), from pink flax flowers; Al Jubayhah 26.III.1994 (1Ψ); 3.IV.1988 (1Ψ); Al Mukhybah Al Fawqa 9.III.2002 (37Ψ, 48ɗ), 11.III.2002 (2Ψ), from pink and blue flax flowers; Al Mukhybah At Tahta 11.III.2002 (2Ψ, 3ɗ), from pink flax flowers; Ayn Aqraba 25.III.2002 (4Ψ, 4ɗ), Ar Rumman 11.IV.1988 (1Ψ), 6.V.2002 (1ɗ); As Salt 13.IV.2002 (1Ψ, 12ɗ), 16.IV.2002 (4Ψ, 5ɗ), from pink flax flowers; Irbid 25.III.2002 (1Ψ); Wadi Shu’ayb 28.I.1995 (1Ψ).

Distribution: Palaearctic: Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey.

It is common in the highlands and Jordan Valley. Many specimens were picked by hand from the flowers of pink flax, Linum pubescens Banks & Sol. at sunset in As Salt. It was also collected from blue flax, Linum peyronii Post (Linaceae) .