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nd Proceedings of 22 Iranian Plant Protection Congress, 27-30 August 2016 447 College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, IRAN

Family (Diptera: Brachycera: Asiloidea) in East Azerbaijan province, with a new species record for Iranian Fauna

Rahman Mohammadi1

1.Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

The robber or Asilidae are a large family of Diptera comprising 7187 described species in eleven subfamilies and 821 genera which have adapted most successfully in the world. of this family are small (3 mm) to very large (over 50 mm) flies, averaging 9-15 mm in length. Head is relatively short and broad with more or less convex occiput, freely movable. The wings are rather narrow for speedy flight. R always four-branched, with R2+3 unbranched. The adult and larvae of robber flies are predators, feeding on various , mainly insects and are important agents of biological balance in populations. The study on the of the family Asilidae in Iran was conducted to identify 237 species. The studied specimens of the family Asilidae were collected from various localities of the East Azerbaijan province (Arasbaran forests, Chichekli, Horand, Varzaghan, Kandovan, Shabestar and Maragheh) during 2012-2014. After killing in a cyanide bottle, specimens were transferred to Laboratory. To dissect the male genitalia, the end of the abdomen was removed and boiled in 10% KOH solution for about 60 seconds, and then placed in acetic acid. The genitalia were washed and then stored in glycerine and then species identified by valid keys. The following references were used for identification and geographical distribution of studied species: Bei-Bienko (1988), Geller Grimm (2003, 2008), Lehr et al. (2007) and Hayat et al. (2008). Four genera and eight species (Dioctria atricapilla Meigen, 1804, (Fabricius, 1787), Dioctria pilithorax Richter, 1960, Dysmachus bilobus Loew, 1871, D. praemorsus (Loew, 1854), D. picipes (Meigen, 1820 and Machimus annulipes (Brullé, 1832) and Promachus leoninus Loew, 1848) of the family Asilidae are recognized; of them Dioctria pilithorax Richter, 1960 is reported as new record to the Iranian fauna. Morphological diagnostic characters of Dioctria pilithorax are as follows: tibia 1 ventroapically without spinescent curved bristle or protuberance with curved bristle, pulvilli present, face weakly raise, proboscis straight and short, antenna distinctly longer than eye, mesonotum black and pollinosity, mystax black and face covered yellow hairs. Before this study, Dioctria pilithorax was reported only from Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Keywords: Asilidae, New record, East Azerbaijan province, Iran.

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