Simulium (Simulium) bezzii (Corti)

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

10. Simulium (Simulium) bezzii (Corti)

Iran references. No previous reference, new record.

Iraq references. Abul-hab (1978a, 1978b, rst record), Abul-hab (1983, mentioned from Iraq, as bezzi), Crosskey and Howard (1997, world inventory entry).

Material seen

Iran: 5 pupae, 3 larvae, river at Rudak , 26 km NE of Tehran (36ss51¾/51ss33¾), 3 November 1978 (Kurtak and Kurtak) . Iraq: 11 pupae (incl. pharate males), Kurdistan, Arbil (5 Irbil) Province, Khalifan , 36ss14¾/44ss44¾, 28 August 1976 (Abulhab) . 9 pupae, 37 larvae, Kurdistan, Sulaymaniyah Province, Sarchinor (35ss35¾/ 45ss23¾), 4 April 1989 (Mohsen) .

Remarks

Pre-eminently a species of the Mediterranean basin, S. bezzii ranges from Spain to the Middle East and Transcaucasus. Authors in the ex-USSR (e.g. Djafarov, 1960 in Azerbaijan; Terteryan, 1968 in Armenia) have called it by the synonymous name condici, a misspelling of kondici Baranov. The adult female is easily recognized by the scutal pattern of three blackish brown vittae on a grey background (gure 69). The species has been known from Iraq since my rst identi cation of it for Abulhab (1978a, 1978b) but the record here for Iran is newly established; it is based on identi cation of the pupae listed above from Rudak near Tehran. The pupa is readily distinguished from that of other local species with six- lamented gill by the large openings anteriorly in the sides of the cocoon (gure 54).