Atherigona (Atherigona) naqvii Steyskal, 1966

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A. & Deeming, John C., 2020, The Muscidae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, descriptions of two new species, new records and updated list of species, Zootaxa 4869 (1), pp. 1-54 : 26-27

Atherigona (Atherigona) naqvii Steyskal, 1966 ( Fig. 35 )

Atherigona (Atherigona) naqvii Steyskal, 1966: 53 .

“ Sind wheat-stem fly” of Ramachandra Rao (1924)

Specimens examined. 2m, Jazan, Farasan Island, Aziz Yousef Village , 29.x.2014, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( CERS) ; 9m, 39f, Asir, Abha, Hay Al-Nusub , 3.iii.–3.vi.2001, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( NMWC; CERS) ; 1m, Asir, Abha, Madenate Al-Ameer Sultan, Hay Al-Sad , 27.viii.2013, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( CERS) ; 3f, same data but 25.ii.–25.v.2002 ( NMWC) ; 1m, Jazan, Abu Aresh, Al-Mahdag Village , 1.ii.–3.iv.2011, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( CERS) ; 2m, 2f, Asir, Maraba, Al-Hudaithy Fruit Farm , 1–30.v.2004, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( NMWC) ; 2m, Asir, Keratha, Al-Ethrebany Fruit Farm , 15.v.–11.vi.2006, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( NMWC) ; 2m, 1f, Al-Dawaseer, Al-Joba village , 1.iii.–30.iv.2005, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah & M.A. Abdullah ( NMWC) .

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Deeming (1971); Dawah & Abdullah (2009). It was described from specimens reared from wheat shoots in West Pakistan. In the Middle East It was recorded from Oman, UAE and Yemen ( Pont 1991; Deeming 2000; 2008; Muller & Mostovski 2018)

Taxonomic remarks. Ramachandra Rao (1924) was the first person to comment on the importance of the male trifoliate process, which had been overlooked by previous dipterists. He referred to the species since described as A. naqvii as the Sind wheat-stem fly on p. 334 of his report, and on plate 33 it is listed as the Sindh wheat-stem fly, where two photographs of the trifoliate process are produced. The material that he had at hand was from Mirpurkhas in Sind, from Lahore and from Peshawar, all localities now in the far east of Pakistan, those specimens from Peshawar reared from wheat. These were all collected between 1913 and 1918.

Biological remarks. This species is of considerable economic importance as it is a serious pest of bulrush millet in west Africa and wheat and barley in Arabia and Pakistan. It also infests a number of wild grasses ( Pont 1973b; 1991; Deeming 1971; 2008). Since the initial finding of A. (Atherigona) naqvii in Africa (attacking millet in Nigeria in 1960) it has become one of the most widespread and common Atherigona species in Africa.

Figures

FIGURE. 32–36. Muscidae species habitus: 32) Atherigona (Atherigona) laevigata (Loew, 1852), Female; 33) Atherigona (Atherigona) lineata (Adams, 1905), Male; 34) Atherigona (Atherigona) longifolia Emden, 1940, Male; 35) Atherigona (Atherigona) naqvii Steyskal, 1966, Male; 36) Atherigona (Atherigona) pulla Wiedemann, 1830, Male.