A Faunistic Survey on the Bee Flies (Dip.: Bombyliidae) in Alborz Province with Two New Records from Iran

Bee flies are important pollinators in nature. Their larvae are predators or parasites of other insects such as beetles and locust eggs so they are important for balancing of insect population. In this study the adult bee flies were collected from arid and semi-arid rangelands in Alborz province using insect nets and Pan traps from April to September in 2012. The samples which were extracted from white pan traps، stored in 96% ethanol and others were stabilized by standard insect pins. The samples were identified using some keys such sa: Greathead & Evenhuis (2001) at the genus level and keys Engel (1932-1937)، Linder (1975)، Zaitzev (1966) and Gharali (2010) at the species level. All of the species were confirmed with Dr Babak Gharali in Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources of Ghazvin province. A total of 18 species and 12 genera were identified. All of the species are new records for the province، of which two species are new records for Iran. Identified species are as follows: Exoprosopa pectoralis Loew، 1862، E. grandis (Weidemann، 1820)، E. amseli Oldroyd، 1961*، Caecanthrax arabicus (Macquart، 1840)، Thyridanthrax. elegans (Weidemann، 1820)،