Faunistic Study of the Genus Megaselia Rondani 1856 (Diptera: Phoridae) from East Azerbaijan Province Including 11 New Records for Iran

Phoridae is considered as one of the largest families of order Diptera. This family includes about 4,000 known species in more than 260 genera belongs to four subfamilies. Faunistic study on phorid flies of the genus Megaselia Rondani 1856 (Diptera: Phoridae), was conducted on different grasslands and forests of East Azerbaijan province during 2009-2018. Specimens were collected using sweeping net on various plants and Malaise trap. Totally 14 species Megaselia albicaudata (Wood, 1910), *M. albocingulata (Strobl, 1906), *M. angustiata Schmitz, 1936, *M. bovista (Gimmerthal, 1848), *M. brevior (Schmitz, 1924), *M. curvicapilla Schmitz, 1947, *M. longiseta (Wood, 1909), *M. oxybelorum Schmitz, 1928, *M. posticata (Strobl, 1898), M. rufipes (Meigen, 1804), *M. stichata (Lundbeck, 1920), *M. styloprocta (Schmitz, 1921), *M. tama (Schmitz, 1926) and M. xanthozona (Strobl, 1892) belonging to this genus have been identified. Among the identified species 11 species which are marked with an asterisk (*), are recognized to be new for the Iranian fauna. Moreover, an identification key, geographical distribution and supplementary figures of the studied species are presented.