Simulium (Wilhelmia) dahestanicum (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 : 1873

14. Simulium (Wilhelmia) dahestanicum (Rubtsov)

Iran references. None.

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

Material seen

Iraq: 19 pupae (incl. pharate), Diyala Province, Khanaqin, Qoratu (5Kuretu) (34ss36¾/45ss29¾), 20 December 1976 (Kassal) . 3 pupae (incl. pharate), Diyala Province, Mandali (5Mandili), 33ss43¾/45ss33¾, 14 December 1976 (Kassal). [Also holotype from Dagestan, see note below.]

Type notes

Rubtsov (1962d: 403–404) described this species from both sexes of adults, pupae and larvae. A ‘Typus’ was cited without stated sex but with a precise type locality in Dagestan (the Russian republic after which the species is named). Though the type status is rather ambiguous, I agree with Yankovsky (1995) in accepting as holotype the slide-mounted male in ZISP that was labelled as type by Rubtsov and has the correct data. The specimen (examined) is incomplete, the slide parts including the head, legs and dissected genitalia (including the ventral plate well displayed). The data are: Russia, Dagestan Autonomous Republic, tributary of Ulluchay (5Ullu-Tschaj) river, near Gunna village, ca 1000 m, 6 June 1957 (Zabirov) ( ZISP No. 10141). Two females and a larva with identical data are in ZISP ( Yankovsky, 1995).

Remarks

Simulium (Wilhelmia) dahestanicum is very similar to S. (W.) pseudequinum (syn. mediterranea ), as is clear from Rubtsov’s gures, but appears to be acceptable as a valid species in the light of morphological characters currently used for species recognition in Wilhelmia . It is apparently rare and localized. To date it is known from the type material from Dagestan and from specimens here recorded for the rst time from Iraq (the basis of the entry ‘Iraq’ in Crosskey and Howard, 1997). Rubtsov and Yankovsky (1984, 1988) listed the species from the Transcaucasus but the grounds for this are unclear, especially as Terteryan (1968) did not record it from Armenia.

The spermatheca of S. (W.) dahestanicum (slide-mounted from one available pharate female) appears not to diVer from that of S. (W.) pseudequinum , having the same small size and shape like a button-mushroo m (gure 40), and it is unlikely that non-reared females of dahestanicum can be distinguished from pseudequinum females. The pupa can be distinguished from that of pseudequinum by the form of the gill tubes, these shorter and stouter and less obviously narrowed and not wrinkled at their base (gure 41). Males diVer in the genitalia, the ventral plate of dahestanicum having wider lateral arms than in pseudequinum (cf. gures 42 and 38) and the median sclerite being longer in dahestanicum (gure 43) and conspicuously curved in pro le (gure 43, arrowed). Larvae of dahestanicum have not been seen but they are almost certainly inseparable morphologically from those of pseudequinum .