Oriental Insects Faunistic analysis of a bioindicator group of insects (Diptera: Syrphidae) across semi-arid habitats in For Peernortheastern Review Algeria Only Journal: Oriental Insects Manuscript ID TOIN-2019-0110 Manuscript Type: Original Paper Date Submitted by the 13-Oct-2019 Author: Complete List of Authors: Mebarkia, Nadjoua; University of Tebessa Faculty of Exact Sciences and Natural and Life Sciences, Department of Natural and Life Sciences, Larbi Tebessi university, Algeria Neffar, Souad; University of Tebessa Faculty of Exact Sciences and Natural and Life Sciences, Department of Natural and Life Sciences, Larbi Tebessi university, Algeria Djellab, Sihem; University of Tebessa Faculty of Exact Sciences and Natural and Life Sciences, Department of Natural and Life Sciences, Larbi Tebessi university, Algeria Ricarte, Antonio; Universitat d'Alacant, Chenchouni, Haroun; University of Tebessa Faculty of Exact Sciences and Natural and Life Sciences, Department of Natural and Life Sciences, Larbi Tebessi university, Algeria Algerian ecosystems, Diptera, faunistics, species inventory, species Keywords: distribution, Syrphidae URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toin Page 1 of 38 Oriental Insects Page 1 sur 1 1 2 3 4 Faunistic analysis of a bioindicator group of insects (Diptera: 5 6 Syrphidae) across semi-arid habitats in northeastern Algeria 7 8 9 Nadjoua Mebarkia a*, Souad Neffar a, Sihem Djellab a, Antonio Ricarte b & 10 11 Haroun Chenchounia,c 12 13 14 15 a Department of Natural and Life Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences and Natural and 16 17 18 Life Sciences, ForLarbi tebessi Peer university, Review 12002 Tebessa, OnlyAlgeria. 19 20 b Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad (CIBIO), Universidad de Alicante, 21 22 Carretera de San Vicente s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain. 23 24 c Laboratory of Natural Resources and Management of Sensitive Environments 25 26 27 ‘RNAMS’, University of Oum-El-Bouaghi, 04000 Oum-El-Bouaghi, Algeria. 28 29 30 31 *Corresponding author: Nadjoua Mebarkia, E-mail: [email protected] 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toin Oriental Insects Page 2 of 38 Page 1 sur 30 1 2 3 4 Faunistic analysis of a bioindicator group of insects (Diptera: 5 6 Syrphidae) across semi-arid habitats in northeastern Algeria 7 8 9 Abstract 10 11 12 Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) pollinate plants, predate other insects, and feed on vegetal 13 14 and decay materials, being used as bioindicators of different ecosystem conditions and 15 16 processes. The main aim of the present paper is to enhance the bioindicator potential of 17 For Peer Review Only 18 hoverflies in Algeria (North Africa) by studying the hoverfly communities of six sites 19 20 21 with different vegetation and conditions, in the semi-arid Northeast of Algeria: unpolluted 22 23 riverbank, plant nursery, polluted riverbank, olive orchard (Olea europaea), prickly pear 24 25 plantations (Opuntia ficus-indica), and a cypress hedge (Cupressus sempervirens).With an 26 27 28 entomological net, hoverflies were sampled fortnightly from December 2016 to 29 30 November 2017. In total 37 species were identified, predominating by the subfamily 31 32 Erisalinae. The unpolluted and polluted riverbanks, and the plant nursery had the highest 33 34 35 species richness with 26, 24, and 23 species respectively, whereas, the lowest species 36 37 numbers were detected in the prickly pear plantations, the cypress hedge and the olive 38 39 orchard with 16, 14, and 10 species respectively. One species was new to North Africa 40 41 (Eumerus etnensis) and other three species new to Algeria (Eupeodes nuba, Paragus 42 43 44 vandergooti and Eumerus obliquus). The results of the present paper suggest the need for 45 46 further hoverfly surveys in other unexplored regions and habitats of Algeria. 47 48 Key words: Algerian ecosystems, Diptera, faunistics, species inventory, species 49 50 51 distribution, Syrphidae. 52 53 1. Introduction 54 55 The Syrphidae (Diptera), commonly known as ‘hoverflies’ in Europe and ‘flower flies’ 56 57 58 in North America, are true flies with about 6000 species and 202 genera distributed 59 60 almost worldwide (Rotheray and Gilbert 2011). Hoverflies play multiple ecosystem URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toin Page 3 of 38 Oriental Insects Page 2 sur 30 1 2 3 services, particularly as efficient pollinators and predators of other insects (Petanidou et 4 5 6 al. 2011; Ricarte et al. 2011; Inouye et al. 2015). Generally, they are divided into the 7 8 following functional groups: phytophages, mycophages, saprophages, saproxylics and 9 10 zoophages (Sommaggio 1999; Rotheray et al. 2000, 2001; Rojo et al. 2003). Hoverflies 11 12 are used as bioindicators thanks to their widespread distribution, availability of 13 14 15 identification keys and diverse larval requirements (Sommaggio 1999). For example, 16 17 hoverflies with predatory larvae indicate the presence of their preys nearby and 18 For Peer Review Only 19 hoverflies with saproxylic larvae the maturity of trees where they find their breeding 20 21 22 sites (rot holes or sap runs) (Rotheray 1993). Nonetheless, the very basic premises to 23 24 use hoverflies as bioindicators is to know the habitats (adults) and microhabitats 25 26 (larvae) they associate with (and depend on) in their geographic range (Speight and 27 28 29 Castella 2001). 30 31 In North Africa, the degree of knowledge of the hoverflies varies greatly from one 32 33 country to another. In many cases, hoverfly knowledge does not reflect the real 34 35 dimension of each hoverfly biocenosis, as a result of insufficient exploration of the 36 37 38 various regions of the countries concerned. For example, the number of species listed in 39 40 Tunisia, Egypt and Libya is 61, 43, and 33 species, respectively (El-Hawagry and 41 42 Gilbert 2019). The hoverfly community in these countries apparently remains to this 43 44 45 day poorly known. In contrast to the three previous countries, the hoverfly fauna of 46 47 Morocco is apparently much better known, with 131 species recorded (e.g. Kassebeer 48 49 1995a, 1995b, 1999a, 1999c; Sullivan and Sutherland 2000; Reemer et al. 2004, Pârvu 50 51 52 et al. 2006; Vujić et al. 2015). 53 54 The total data on the hoverfly fauna of Algeria is limited mainly to a few species lists 55 56 derived from occasional surveys in the 20th century (Becker 1907; Séguy 1961; Peck 57 58 1988; Hurkmans 1993; Djellab and Samraoui 1994). However, there are some recent 59 60 URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toin Oriental Insects Page 4 of 38 Page 3 sur 30 1 2 3 investigations carried out in humid and semi-arid regions of Algeria (Djellab et al. 4 5 6 2013; Haffaressas et al. 2017; Djellab et al. 2019). 7 8 North Africa and particularly Algeria has an uneven and poor knowledge of their 9 10 hoverflies as stated above. This fact reduces the bioindicator potential of this insect 11 12 group in a world region where they could be used in habitat management and 13 14 15 conservation (Speight and Castella 2001), as well as in other applied fields such as the 16 17 control of pest insects (Raymond et al. 2014). 18 For Peer Review Only 19 Algeria presents a great climatic diversity, since one meets there all the Mediterranean 20 21 22 bioclimatic stages going from wet to Saharan, which gives the country a great faunistic 23 24 and floristic diversity. According to the size and habitat diversity of Algeria, the 25 26 hoverfly fauna (currently 76 spp) (El-Hawagry and Gilbert 2019) and communities at 27 28 29 different Algerian habitats seem to be far to be fully understood. Thus, this study aims 30 31 at enhancing the bioindicator potential of hoverflies in Algeria by surveying and 32 33 studying them in six sites with different vegetation and conditions, in the steppe 34 35 rangelands from the Northeast (an unpolluted riverbank, a polluted riverbank, a plant 36 37 38 nursery, an olive orchard, a prickly-pear plantation and a cypress hedge). This is then a 39 40 new step towards a definitive checklist of the Algerian hoverflies, with findings relevant 41 42 to North Africa. 43 44 45 2. Material and Methods 46 47 2.1. Study area 48 49 The study was conducted in the region of Hammamet, located at 18 km northwest of 50 51 52 the city of Tebessa (northeastern Algeria) (Fig. 1). Based on data provided by the 53 54 meteorological station of Tebessa located within study area (latitude: 35°4’N, longitude: 55 56 57 8°13’E, altitude: 813m, WMO station code: 604750) available at ‘tutiempo’ climate data 58 59 base (https://fr.tutiempo.net/climat/ws-604750.html), for the period 1972-2016, the study 60 URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/toin Page 5 of 38 Oriental Insects Page 4 sur 30 1 2 3 area is characterized by a semi-arid climate (De Martonne aridity index=14.1). September 4 5 6 was the rainiest month with 40.93 mm, while July was the driest month with 14.95 mm. 7 8 Annual rainfalls averaged 372.08 mm and the annual average of mean temperature was 9 10 16.37°C with a maximum in July (26.26 °C) and minimum in January (7.67°C). Gaussen 11 12 and Bagnouls diagram represented in Figure 1 shows that the dry period lasted more than 13 14 15 five months a year, from mid-May to late October. 16 17 Field work covered six sites representing different vegetation and conditions from the 18 For Peer Review Only 19 steppe rangelands of Algeria shown in Table 1.