BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 20, Number 4, April 2019 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 994-1005 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d200409 To robber flies fauna (Diptera: Asilidae) of Mordovia, Russia DMITRY M. ASTAKHOV1,♥, ALEXANDER B. RUCHIN2,♥♥, OLGA D. ROMADINA1, IVAN M. PRISTREM1 1Volgograd State University, Universitetskiy pr., 100, Volgograd 400062, Russia.♥email: [email protected], [email protected] 2Joint Directorate of Mordovia State Nature Reserve and Smolny National Park, Saransk, Russia; ♥♥email: [email protected] Manuscript received: 25 February 2019. Revision accepted: 14 March 2019. Abstract. Astakhov DM, Ruchin AB, Romadina OD, Pristrem IM. 2019. To robber flies fauna (Diptera: Asilidae) of Mordovia, Russia. Biodiversitas 20: 994-1005. On the basis of long-term data (2007-2018), the fauna of robber flies (Asilidae) of the Republic of Mordovia was studied. Taking into account our own and literary data, 35 species of robber flies from 18 genera were noted. Of them, 19 species were noticed in the Republic of Mordovia for the first time. We presented the photos of morphological traits of Choerades fuliginosa (Panzer 1798), Choerades gilva (Linnaeus 1758), Choerades ignea (Meigen 1820), Laphria gibbosa (Linnaeus 1758), Andrenosoma albibarbe (Meigen 1820), Andrenosoma atra (Linnaeus 1758), Didysmachus picipes (Meigen 1820), Dysmachus stylifer (Loew 1854), Pamponerus germanicus (Linnaeus 1758), Philonicus albiceps (Meigen 1820), Machimus gonatistes (Zeller 1840), Neoitamus cothurnatus (Meigen 1820), Neoitamus cyanurus (Loew 1849), Dioctria atricapilla (Meigen 1804), Leptogaster cylindrica (De Geer 1776). Keywords: Asilidae, new records, robber flies, Russia INTRODUCTION Some of them (stenotopic species) occur only in one plant community type, others (eurytopic species) can inhabit two Diptera, along with Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and or more types of plant communities (Dennis and Lavigne Hemiptera, is one of the largest orders in the world fauna. 1975; Londt 2006; Dennis et al. 2012; Astakhov 2013; The same applies to regional faunas. During the last Dennis 2018; Moreira and Maia 2018). decade, we studied the biological diversity of various insect Until now, the fauna of robber flies of the Mordovia groups of the Republic of Mordovia. This allowed us to remained poorly studied. And the species composition of identify many rare species and make species lists of some the robber flies of this territory is of considerable interest families (Ruchin and Kurmaeva 2010; Ruchin and Artaev for understanding the structure of the robber flies fauna of 2016; Semenov 2016; Ruchin and Egorov 2017a, 2017b, the entire Middle Volga region. There are some 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, 2018d; Ruchin and Makarkin 2017; publications covering the data on the robber flies of the Ruchin 2018; Ruchin and Grishutkin 2018; Ruchin and Mordovia. Redikortsev (1938) for the first time indicated Mikhailenko 2018; Ruchin et al. 2018, 2019a, 2019b; only one species of Laphria gibbosa for the fauna of the Tomaszewska et al. 2018; Ruchin and Antropov 2019). Mordovia State Nature Reserve. Plavilshchikov (1964) However, Diptera representatives are still underexplored noted 13 species of Asilidae family found in the Mordovia group. There is only some limited information about the State Nature Reserve (Leptogaster cylindrica, Dioctria Mordovian fauna of the Tipulidae and Limoniidae (Ruchin cothurnata, Lasiopogon cinctus, Laphria marginata, and Pilipenko 2015), Simuliidae (Budaeva and Ruchin Laphria gibbosa, Choerades gilva, Choerades fuliginosa, 2014), Bibionidae (Kornev et al. 2016), Syrphidae Andrenosoma atra, Asilus crabroniformis, Machimus (Chursina and Ruchin 2018b), Bombyliidae (Chursina and rusticus, Neoitamus cyanurus, Tolmerus atricapillus and Ruchin 2018a) and Tabanidae (Budaeva and Ruchin 2016). Echthistus rufineris). Antsiferova and Dobromyslov (1966) However, many groups are still unexplored. indicated two species - Leptogaster cylindrica and Robber flies (Diptera, Asilidae) are one of the largest Didysmachus picipes in the study of crops of Vicia - Avena families in the Diptera order. It contains more than 7,500 - Phacelia and Vicia - Avena mixtures in Mordovia. species (Dikow et al. 2017). The size of robber flies may Antsiferova (1979) noted two species Leptogaster vary from 5 to 60 mm (Dikow 2009). Robber flies are cylindrica and Asilus crabroniformis in the study of insect characterized by a different body shape (as a rule, with a communities of Medicago spp. Ruchin (2008) indicated cylindrically elongated abdomen) and a very diverse several Asilidae species: Dioctria oelandica, Didysmachus coloring of sclerites, which are often covered with thick picipes, Tolmerus atricapillus and Pamponerus germanicus hairs. Representatives of the family are known from in the Smolny National Park (Mordovia). Thus, 16 species various habitats. But the greatest species diversity is typical of robber flies were revealed in the Republic of Mordovia. for arid and semi-arid areas, as well as for tropical forests. During the current study, we found 13 species known Being active predators, adult flies and their larvae play a earlier for Mordovia. The species of Dioctria cothurnata, prominent role in ecosystems (Astakhov 2015). Robber Dioctria oelandica and Asilus crabroniformis have not flies can inhabit different types of terrestrial ecosystems. been found in the extensive material studied during our ASTAKHOV et al. – To robber flies fauna of Mordovia, Russia 995 study. And we don’t include them in the list presented Choerades fuliginosa (Panzer 1798) below. Thus, taking into account the new data, the fauna of (Figs 1-2) Literature. Plavilshchikov (1964) the robber flies of Mordovia currently includes 35 species Materials. Temnikov district, Mordovia State Nature from 18 genera. Of them, 19 species are listed for the fauna Reserve, square 276, 20.V.2014, 1 ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); of the region for the first time. In the fauna of Mordovia, Temnikov district, Mordovia State Nature Reserve, square the family Asilidae is represented by 6 subfamilies: 398, 24.V.2016, 1 ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); Temnikov district, Laphriinae, Asilinae, Dioctriinae, Leptogastrinae, Mordovia State Nature Reserve, square 420, 07.V.2015, 1 Stichopogoninae and Brachyrhopalinae. ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); Krasnoslobodsk district, settlement Sivin, All species are widely distributed in the European 20.V.2017, 1 ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); National park "Smolny", Russia. And for all species we provided a detailed Lvovskoe forestry, 05.V.2008, 1 ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); Staroe annotated list, distribution data and, if necessary, notes. Shaygovo district, village Staroye Shaygovo, 01.V.2018, 1 ♀ (A.B. Ruchin); Ruzaevka district, village Boldovo, 04.V.2016, 1 ♀ (A.B. Ruchin); Chamzinka district, village MATERIALS AND METHODS Mokshalei, 28.V.2018, 1 ♂ (A.B. Ruchin); Dubenki district, 8 km SE village Engalychevo, 01.V.2009, 1 ♂ The studied material had been collected by A. B. (A.B. Ruchin). Ruchin, G. B. Semishin, M. K. Ryzhov, A. A. Zvonov and Distribution. Forests from Spain to the Baikal Lake; in E. A. Lobachev during more than 10 years. We provided the north up to 65 ° N; the whole Europe, Turkey, the information on the species distribution according to the Caucasus and the Transcaucasus (Lehr 1991). literature data by indicating the source for each species. Systematics and nomenclature is given according to Dikow Choerades gilva (Linnaeus 1758) (2009) and Lehr (1988). The asterisk «*» indicates the (Figs 3-4) species noted in the Republic of Mordovia for the first Literature. Plavilshchikov (1964) time. Materials. Temnikov district, Mordovia State Nature The material was determined according to the recent Reserve, settlement Pushta, 10.V.2013, 1 ♂ (A.B. identification keys relevant for the study area (Richter Ruchin); Temnikov district, Mordovia State Nature 1969; Lehr 1989, 1991, 1996; Astakhov 2015). The specimens included in this study were also compared with Reserve, cordon Steklyannyi, square 86, 07.V.2015, 1 ♀ those from the collection of the Zoological Institute of RAS (G. B. Semishin); Temnikov district, Mordovia State with reliable definitions by V. A. Richter and P. A. Lehr. Nature Reserve, cordon Pavlovsky, 28.V.2018, 1 ♂ (G. To reliably determine some species, we studied the male B. Semishin); Temnikov district, Mordovia State Nature genital structures. The top of the male abdomen was cut Reserve, cordon Pavlovsky, 06.V.2013, 1 ♀ (G. B. off, maintained with a warm KOH solution and washed Semishin). with water. Genital structures were examined in glycerol Distribution. European part of the former USSR, and stored in microtubes attached to the corresponding Western and Eastern Siberia, the Far East; most part of flies. For some rare species, we provided detailed Europe, Mongolia,? Japan; Nearctic (Canada, the USA) photographs of the morphological trait details, which can (Lehr 1988, 1991). also help in the future to identify these species. The photos Note. Lehr (1991) considered Choerades ignea as a were taken using the Canon EOS 1200D camera with a synonym of Choerades gilva, explaining this by the Canon macro f/4.5 100mm IS USM lens. To achieve similarity of the male genital structures of these species. sufficient focal depth, several individual images were But according to our opinion, external characters (coloring stitched together using the Helicon Focus 6 software. The of the hairs and macrosetae of the mystax and scutellum, subsequent processing of photographs was made in Gimp coloring of the abdomen tergites, etc.) are