Simulium (Simulium) fontanum Terteryan, 1952

Crosskey, R. W., 2002, A taxonomic account of the black y fauna of Iraq and Iran, including keys for species identi cation (Diptera: Simuliidae), Journal of Natural History 36 (15), pp. 1841-1886 : 1869-1870

11. Simulium (Simulium) fontanum Terteryan

Iran references. No previous reference, new record.

Iraq references. None.

Material seen

Iran: 1 (1), Elburz Mountains, stream on Towchal Mountain , 23 km N of Tehran, 2500 m (35ss50¾/51ss25¾), 29 September 1978 (Kurtak and Kurtak) .

Remarks

This is a nominal species of the Simulium (S.) ornatum -group occurring in Azerbaijan ( Djafarov, 1960) and Armenia ( Terteryan, 1968), reportedly also in Romania ( Dinulescu, 1966). Its species validity is not fully certain because Kachvoryan et al. (2000) have found recently that the polytene chromosomes of larvae from S, fontanum localities in Armenia had identical band sequences as those found in larvae from S. (S.) caucasicum sites, suggesting that fontanum — despite some reported morphological diVerences—might be synonymous with caucasicum . However, in the absence as yet of formalized synonymy based on detailed studies correlating cytological and morphological ndings I here treat S. (S.) fontanum as a valid species and record it from Iran on the basis of the reared adult male (data above) that was collected by the Kurtaks in the Elburz Mountains. This male has the antennae uniformly black, the beak-like process of the ventral plate broadly tapered (gure 66) and the hind basitarsus unusually wide, and thus ts the original ( Terteryan, 1952) and later descriptions for this sex ( Rubtsov, 1956, 1963; Djafarov, 1960; Terteryan, 1968). Also in agreement, and supporting the identi cation as fontanum , are the high-altitude (2500 m) habitat and the geographical proximity to the recorded sites for the species in Transcaucasia. (In Armenia the nominal species occurs in high mountain streams at 1250–2000 m in areas near to Iran, such as the environs of Megri on the Araks river forming the border between northwestern Iran and Armenia – Azerbaijan.) The pupal exuviae of the reared Iranian male shows the cocoon to be weakly woven, slightly perforate and with a weak anterior rim, and the pupal gill to have an elongate lowermost common stalk (gure 46); the thoracic microtubercles are dense and roundly domed.

There are no type specimens of fontanum in ZISP although the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Leningrad, was the stated depository in Terteryan’s (1952) original description; hence the name is omitted from Yankovsky’s (1995) list of simuliid types in the ZISP collection.