Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics
Volume:9 Issue: 2, Jun 2023

Psyllaephagus malloticolae Rawat & Kumar sp. nov. a parasitoid of Trioza malloticola (Crawford) (Hemiptera, Psylloidea, Triozidae) causing galls on leaves of the Kamala tree, Mallotus philippensis Muell, 1865 is described from India. An updated key to all the known allied species of Psyllaephagus Ashmead from India is also provided. The new species comes close to P. garuga Sudhir & Singh, 2011 but differs from it in having Funicular V the longest segment, mid-tibial spur longer than basitarsus, and the exserted ovipositor sheath.

Here, the species richness of Campopleginae, a diverse subfamily of the Darwin wasps was studied in an almost organic damask rose plain located at 2600 m a.s.l., the south of Iran. Sampling was done using four Malaise traps for six months from April–October 2019. The total sampling efforts were 18 trap months. The integrated approach was used to assess the sample completeness profile, to infer true diversities of entire assemblages via asymptotic diversity estimates, to standardize the sample coverage via rarefaction and extrapolation, and to infer diversity via an evenness profile. I also used Homogenous, Homogenous (MLE), Chao1, Chao1-bc, iChao1, ACE, ACE-1, 1st order jackknife, and 2nd order jackknife to estimate the species richness of the studied Campopleginae community. Malaise traps yielded 491 individuals belonging to 24 morphospecies. Diadegma majale (Gravenhorst, 1829) included 64.7% of the total individuals collected, representing the highly dominated species. The estimated sample completeness profile showed that our data covers 59% of the total species in this community and thus 41% of species are undetected. The values for Shannon and Simpson diversity indices are 4.53 and 2.29, respectively. The models and non-parametric estimators estimated the species richness of Campoplegines from 24 – 50 species. This study provides a wealth of baseline data for the subfamily Campopleginae in the south of Iran in terms of biological control and conservation.

An updated checklist of Iranian Syrphidae (Diptera: Syrphoidea) is presented based on literature records with the latest taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. A total of 269 valid species in 70 genera among four subfamilies have been known from Iran, which is approximately 4.27 percent of the world’s total known Syrphidae. Among these, 145 species and 31 genera were added to the previous list. Of the 70 genera Eumerus Meigen (35 species, 13.01%) and Merodon Meigen (26 species, 9.67%), are the most specious, whereas 30 genera are represented in Iran by only one recorded species. The majority of Iranian hoverfly species are exclusively distributed in the Palaearctic region, while 21 species are known only from Iran and possibly endemic to the country.

A vast number of tropical and subtropical mites belong to the family Tarsonemidae Canestrini & Fanzago, 1877, with the tribe Tarsoenmini under subfamily Tarsoneminae having the most diverse assemblage. In order to better understand the distribution, community structure, and host specificity of these mites, it is important to investigate the Tarsonemini mite fauna of India, particularly in the highly biodiverse state of West Bengal. A total of 1154 mite specimens were obtained from 69 distinct plant species belonging to 44 families and distributed over six agroclimatic zones in West Bengal. The mites were classified into 8 distinct genera and 38 morphospecies. We developed bipartite trophic networks for Tarsonemini mites for the first time to show how these different communities of these mites are associated to various host plant species in six different agroclimatic zones. Different network descriptors such as Connectance, H2, Niche Overlap and Robustness were calculated from the mite-plant networks of six agroclimatic zones. Northern Hill Zone had the highest diversity followed by New Alluvial and Teesta-Terai Zone whereas, Red Laterite Zone had the least diversity of mite species. More than 70% Tarsonemini mites were found as generalist plant inhabitants which is consistent with their epiphytotic microbivorous feeding strategy.

The population assemblage of Drosophilidae in the four districts of North Western Ghats was analysed. A total of 13,604 individuals comprising 17 species collected from 8 localities during the period of 2021–22 across various seasons. The study highlights the dominance of three species (Drosophila bipectinata Duda, D. malerkotliana Parshad & Paika and D. eugracilis Bock & Wheeler) belonging to ananassae and eugracilis subgroups. Overall collection data revealed the highest species richness and diversity for Dharwad and UK interior forests, whereas the maximum abundance and the highest evenness were observed in UK coastal and Belagavi forests respectively. The species rank-abundance curve revealed Dharwad forest had higher species richness and comparatively stable species assemblage. Drosophila eugracilis was the dominant species in localities of Dharwad and Belagavi forests, whereas D. bipectinata was the dominant species in both coastal and interior localities of UK forests. Rare faction curves plotted across the different seasons for all the forest localities revealed population assemblage and species richness of all forests across different seasons. Morisita index of similarities showed similarities for populations across localities and seasons. Nonparametric independent sample Kruskal-Wallis test was done to test distribution of abundance of individual species across spatial and temporal groups. The study reveals variation of population assemblage across the forests of Dharwad, Belagavi, and Uttara Kannada (coastal and interior) and dominance of D. bipectinata, D. malerkotliana and D. eugracilis.

This is the first case of host record for parasitoid wasps of the genus Diglyphus Walker (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) from the Anthomyiidae (Diptera) family. This result is based on specimens of D. anadolucus Doğanlar, 1982 which reared from parasitized larval specimen of Pegomya terebrans (Rondani) as a leaf miner of cotton thistle, Onopordum acanthium L. (Asteraceae). Diglyphus anadolucus is reported from Iran for the first time. Some biological notes and morphological characteristics of D. anadolucus along with related photographs are given. An updated checklist of the twelve known Diglyphus species in Iran togther with their host associations is also provided.

The fauna of the subfamily Exoristinae (Diptera, Tachinidae) was studied in northern Iran. A total of 29 species within 26 genera and 6 tribes have been collected and identified. Among them 11 genera and 15 species are newly recorded for Tachinidae fauna of Iran: Admontia blanda (Fallén, 1820), Bessa parallela (Meigen, 1824), Blepharipa pratensis (Meigen, 1824), Ceracia mucronifera Rondani, 1865, Exorista rustica (Fallen, 1810), Gonia ornata Meigen, 1826, Gonia vacua Meigen, 1826,  Medina collaris (Fallén, 1820), Paratryphera barbatula (Rondani, 1859), Neophryxe vallina (Rondani, 1861), Ocytata pallipes (Fallén, 1820), Pachystylum bremii Macquart, 1848, Pales pavida (Meigen, 1824), Phorinia aurifrons Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830, Platymyia fimbriata Meigen, 1824. The collected and distribution data, diagnoses, illustrations of the new records, and host information are provided.

Luciola nicollieri Bugnion, 1922 is one of the sixteen originally described Luciolinae from Sri Lanka. Specimens of L. nicollieri have been re-discovered in 2022 almost after 100 years of its first description, and their identity was confirmed by comparison with the original description, photos of their type specimen and based on expert’s views. Flightless female is associated and described for the first time, males re-described, with details of external morphology, genitalia pattern, flashing behavior and habitat ecology. After examining the types and the generic features of their genetalia, L. nicollieri is placed herein to the category of Luciola Laporte s. str. transferring from Luciola sensu lato. Also a key to the species of Luciola recorded from Sri Lanka is provided.

Iranian species of the superfamily Platygastroidea (Hymenoptera) belonging to two families Platygastridae, (12 genera, 35 species) and Scelionidae (13 genera, 46 species), are reviewed. The recorded platygastroid species from Iran represent a very small assemblage of the world fauna, and certainly not the complete list from Iran. Except for a few recently described species, the others are found in many other countries as well. The known distribution for 27 species (77.1%) of Platygastridae of Iran is restricted to the Palaearctic region, while a smaller percentage was found in the Afrotropical (14.3%) and Nearctic (8.6%) regions. The distributions of 77.8% of Iranian scelionids are strictly Palaearctic, while the remaining scelionids were found also in the Nearctic (11.1%), Oriental (11.1%), Afrotropical (8.9%), Australasian (2.2%) and Neotropic regions (2.2%). Considering the sporadic treatment of platygastroids in Iran, it is evident that major parts of the country, including the eastern third, remain unexplored.

The fungus feeding genus Preeriella Hood is reported first time based on Preeriella armigera Okajima, collected on leaf litter from West Bengal, India. Another phlaeothripid species Hoplandrothrips ochraceus Okajima & Urushihara is recorded from India for the first time. Specimens of H. ochraceus were collected on Curcuma species (rhizomatous annual or perennial herb) belonging to family Zingiberaceae. Notes on the material examined, distribution, diagnostic characters and illustration for the new records are presented.

The iolinid mite Coccalicus clavatus Willmann, 1952 was collected during a survey from the soil of Gilanegharb, Kermanshah, Iran in 2022. This species was first described in the family Alycidae by Willmann in 1952 and then André and Uusitalo transferred it to the family Iolinidae in 2006, accompanied by transferring species from the genus Paratydaeolus to the genus Coccalicus. Some challenges about species characters of this mite are discussed in this paper and the synonymy of C. lukoschusi and C. clavatus is proposed. The genus consists of 12 species with clavate trichobothria, and is related to various habitats like soil, stored products, under barks, on leaves of different plants, and on birds. They have been reported from Europe, Antarctica and North America and this is the first record of the Coccalicus mites from Asia.

In this survey, 116 species of 39 genera and 12 families from two sections Apiformes and Spheciformes of the superfamily Apoidea have been recorded from Georgia (Sakartvelo). Among them, one genus Polemistus de Saussure, 1892 and 39 species are new country records. This is just part of studied and collected material, therefore the identification continues.