Simulium (Eusimulium) paucicuspis Rubtsov

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 : 1864-1865

5. Simulium (Eusimulium) paucicuspis Rubtsov

Iran references. Crosskey (1967, as ‘ latizonum ’, identi cation here revised), Crosskey and Howard (1997, world inventory entry).

Iraq references. Crosskey and Howard (1997, world inventory entry).

Material seen

Iran: 1, Chalous (5Chalus), Caspian Sea coast (36ss40¾/51ss25¾), May 1951 (Giaquinto) . Iraq: 4 (swept), Ninawa, Mosul, Saddam Dam (36ss21¾/43ss08¾), 7 April 1988 (Mohsen); 1 pupa, 15 larvae, same locality, in steamlet, 8 May 1988 (Olejnicek) [speci c association with adult males presumed] .

Remarks

Simulium (E.) paucicuspis was described by Rubtsov (1947) next to S. (E.) brachyantherum (see above) in exactly similar style and from virtually the same type locality. Only the male was mentioned and recognition was essentially dependent on the shape of the ventral plate. Rubtsov (1956) recorded the species from Turkmenistan, and Terteryan (1968) found it in Armenia; the latter author has provided the best description. Identi cation here of the above-listed males from Iran and Iraq is based on the excellent agreement in the shape of the ventral plate and styles with those shown in the illustrated descriptions of Rubtsov (1956, 1962b, 1962c) and Terteryan (1968) and with the genitalia of the lectotype specimen designated by Yankovsky (1995); this is a male in ZISP collection accompanied by its dry pupal exuviae on the same micropin and by its genitalia slide (No. 845). The original locality in Tajikistan was recorded by Rubtsov in two ways, in the rst description (1947) as ‘river Varzob and its tributaries, at 800–900 m’ and in the extended monograph description (1956) as ‘r. Lyuchob, region of Stalinabad’ (now Dushanbe), but it is clear from published and specimen data that the former was a generalized statement of the area of occurrence, the latter a more precise pinpointing of the type locality. In fact Rubtsov (1956, 1962c) mentioned a ‘type’ but not clearly enough to x the lectotype at that time. Yankovsky cites a female in ZISP that bears the same data as the lectotype as a paralectotype but Rubtsov made no overt reference to the female at the time of description.