Simulium (Nevermannia) brevitarse (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 : 1866-1867

7. Simulium (Nevermannia) brevitarse (Rubtsov)

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

Iraq references. None.

Material seen

Iran: 1, 2 (11), Elburz Mountains, stream at Talharz, 23 km NNE of Tehran (35ss49¾/51ss31¾), 1800 m, 6 October 1978 (Kurtak and Kurtak); 1 (1) , same data except date 13 October 1978 .

Remarks

This little-known species was described by Rubtsov (1976, in genus Chelocnetha ) on the basis of adult male and female from Azerbaijan and till now only the type material has been known. Yankovsky (1995) missed the species from his list of Rubtsov’s types but the designated holotype is present in ZISP collection: it is a pinned male with two celluloid mounts of genitalia and other parts, reference No. 20411 as originally published, and has the data Lerik District, Talysh Mountains, Goberi village, [38ss45¾/48ss24], 25 May 1959 (Zaitzev). The female was not seen in ZISP and the present identi cation of the species from Iran is based on comparison of the male from Talharz with the holotype, and on agreement of the characters of the Iranian females with the Rubtsov’s description of the female. The close geographical proximity of the Iranian site with the type locality serves to support the identi cation, since the latter is only a few kilometres from Iran and the Talysh Mountains near the Caspian that form the Iran – Azerbaijan frontier .

Two of the reared Iranian adults are accompanied by their dried pupal exuviae and I can therefore provide a preliminary description of the previously unknown pupal life stage. Pupa: length in situ with cocoon (gills excluded) about 3 mm. Gill about as long as pupal body, con gured as four very long thin sinuous laments in two pairs directed forwards (gure 48); upper pair of laments in vertical plane, on short common trunk about twice as long as wide, arched upwards away from lower laments; lower pair arising almost without any common trunk, orientated slightly obliquely at their base. Thoracic dorsum with abundant dome-like microtubercles and long simple wiry trichomes (these sometimes curled at tip). Cocoon simple, slipper-shaped, with weakly woven texture and rather perforated anterolaterally.

The ventral plate of the Iranian male is shown in gure 64. It is of the strongly keeled lamellate type generally similar to that of S. (N.) ru corne but with the sides sloping strongly inwards.