Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2020 | 12(4): 15503–15506
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4330.12.4.15503-15506
#4330 | Received 09 June 2018 | Final
received 29 January 2020 | Finally accepted 24 February 2020
A new record of the hoverfly
genus Dasysyrphus Enderlein,
1938 (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae) from India
Jayita Sengupta 1, Atanu Naskar 2,
Aniruddha Maity 3, Panchanan Parui 4, Sumit Homchaudhuri 5
& Dhriti Banerjee 6
1,2,3,4,6 Diptera Section, Zoological Survey of
India, M Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal 700053, India.
5 Department of Zoology, University
of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700019, India.
1 jayitasengupta9@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 atanu.diptera@gmail.com, 3 armzool2007@gmail.com, 4 panchananparui042@gmail.com,
5 Homchaudhuri@gmail.com, 6 dhritibanerjee@gmail.com
Editor: Mihaly Foldvari, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo,
Norway. Date
of publication: 26 March 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Sengupta, J., A. Naskar, A. Maity, P. Parui, S. Homchaudhuri & D. Banerjee (2020). A new record
of the hoverfly genus Dasysyrphus Enderlein, 1938 (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae) from India.
Journal
of Threatened Taxa 12(4): 15503–15506. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4330.12.4.15503-15506
Copyright: © Sengupta et al 2020. Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction,
and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to
the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC).
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We wish to express our thanks to Dr.
Kailash Chandra, director, Zoological Survey of India and Ministry of
Environment, Forests and Climate Change, for funding the project and providing
the necessary facilities. Thanks are due
to Sri K.C. Gopi, additional director, Dr. C.
Raghunathan, divisional-in-charge, Entomology Division B, for his continuous
encouragement. Further, we acknowledge and convey our sincere thanks to our
fellow team members Mr. R.S. Mridha, assistant
zoologist, Miss Mousumi Chaudhury, laboratory
assistant, Mr. Surajit Hazra,
data entry operator, Miss Emon Mukhopadhyay, Miss
Garima Hore, research fellows for their constant
encouragement. Last but not the least a
big thank you to Partha Sengupta for helping me
during survey time.
The distribution of Dasysyrphus
Enderlein, 1938 is rare with only four species
known out of 355 syrphid species in India (Mitra et
al. 2008; Ghorpade 2014; Shah et al.
2014). Dasysyrphus
is characterized by the presence of distinct abdominal tergites,
characteristic longitudinal marginal grooves present along the abdominal
tergites (McAlpine et al. 1981). Here we
report Dasysyrphus albostriatus
(Fallen, 1817) for the first time from India (Pape & Evenhuis
2018).
The species was collected from Recong
Peo of Kinnaur District,
Himachal Pradesh, during a survey in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the year
2018. Kinnaur
is in the northeast corner of Himachal Pradesh, about 235km from Shimla, having
the three high mountains ranges, i.e., Zanskar, Greater Himalaya, and Dhauladhar, and enclosing valleys of Sutlej, Spiti, Baspa and their
tributaries (31°05’–32°05’N & 77°45’–79°00’E). Survey was conducted in the month of April
2018.
Syrphid flies were collected from the field during
daytime by using insect sweep nets, malaise trap, and pan traps. The collected samples were narcotized by
using ethyl-acetate and stored for further study in insect envelopes in the
field. The specimens were later carried
back to the laboratory, mounted with insect pins and stored in insect cabinets.
Identification of the fly specimens was done using the
keys of Brunetti (1923), Vockeroth (1992) and Thomson
(2013) keeping in mind the recent nomenclatural changes (Pape & Evenhuis 2018) .
After identification, the specimens were deposited in the designated
repository of national zoological collection, Diptera
section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata.
The 3D maps used here were generated using ARC GIS
software Version 10.1. The photograph of
habitus and insect body and parts were taken by using Leica Microscope M205A,
where 0.32x Acrolense was used for habitus
photography and PLANAPO 1.0X lense was used for the
photography of body parts.
Systematic Account
Subfamily Syrphinae
Tribe Syrphini
Genus Dasysyrphus
Enderlein, 1938
1938. Dasysyrphus Enderlein, Sber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde
Berl. 1937: 208
The genera Dasysyrphus
is described by Enderlein in the year 1938. He has described the genera based on the
taxonomic characters of the species Scaeva albostriata.
Diagnosis: Frons black with purinose
areas, face slightly broadened with distinct median stripe. Scutellum dull yellow to brown in
colour. Ventral scutellar
fringe well developed. Upper and lower katepisternal patches narrowly to broadly join
posteriorly. Abdomen narrowly to broadly
oval and convex. Sternites
yellow with distinct black bands. Wing
membrane entirely trichose (McAlpine et al. 1981)
Key to species of the genus Dasysyrphus
Enderlein, 1938.
Dasysyrphus albostriatus (Fallen, 1817)
(Image 1A–F)
1817. Dasysyrphus albostriatus, Fallen, Syrphici
Sveciae: 42
Taxonomic history: Dasysyrphus
albostriatusis
a species with distributional affinity towards Palearctic region. This species
has been described in the year 1817 by Fallen.
The type locality was Scania of Sweden.
Three species namely Syrphus carinthiacus Latzel, 1876, Syrphus confusus
Egger, 1860 and Syrphus nigrum
Brown, 1971 has been synonymised with this Dasysyrphus
albostriatus later on.
Type location: Sweden, Scania. This species is thus the first record from
India as well as from the oriental region.
Material examined: 18870/H6 , 18871/H6, 18872/H6, 18873/H6 and
18874/H6, five males, 12.iv.2018, Recong Peo, Kinnaur District, 2,220m,
31.539 N, 78.276 E, coll: J Sengupta. Syrphid flies were collected by sweeping
insect nets in agricultural field by the collector (Figure 1a–c).
Diagnosis: Presence of large shinning black antennal
prominence; distinct black median stripe enclosing the central bump. Occiput grey with yellowish-white
uninterrupted fringe. Dorsum of thorax
consists of black conspicuous stripes.
Pleurae shinning dark grey, scutellum brownish-yellow in color with wholly long black pubescence. Abdominal tergites distinct. Moderate sized yellow oval spot on 2nd
segment while sinuate narrow yellow band of uniform length on 3rd
and 4th segment. Basal half
of anterior and hind femora and whole hind tibiae more or less blackish. Wing grayish with
orange colored halters.
Distribution: India: Himachal Pradesh: Kinnaur: Recong Peo (new record); Sweden (Pape & Evenhuis
2018).
Remarks: Dasysyrphus
albostriatus has been reported feeding on larvae
of Lepidoptera (Krpač et al. 2009). Adults are
also known as beneficial pollinator (Laska et al. 2013). Therefore, both the larvae as well as adults
are economically important from agricultural viewpoint.
Discussion: Hoverfly research in India is quite enriched with a
research history over the past 110 years.
The research on Indian hoverflies has always preferred the taxonomic
aspect during pre-independence era (Fabricius 1805;
Brunetti 1923; Bhatia & Shaffi 1933) whereas in
post-independence period, the research interest has been shifted more towards
economic and agricultural aspects (Coe 1964; Nayar
1968; Hippa 1974; Biswas et al. 1975; Kohli et al.
1988). During the last decade research
has focused on both taxonomy as well as the field of agricultural, ecological
and economical studies (Mitra & Parui 2002, 2012; Mukherjee et al. 2006, 2007; Parui et al. 2006; Ghorpade 2007,
2009, 2012, 2014; Mitra 2010; Shah et al. 2014;
Sengupta et al. 2017, 2019, Wachkoo et al.
2019). Recently one genus and one
species have been reported newly from India (Wachkoo
et al. 2019) thereby updating the hoverflies taxon list with 70 genera and 356
species currently from India.
Key to
species of the genus Dasysyrphus Enderlein, 1938
1. Frons
with white hairs, femoral 1 & 2 entirely yellow .............................................................
pandu Ghorpade,
1994
- Frons
with black hairs, femora 1 & 2 yellow with basal part half blackish …......……………..….
2
2. Hind
tibia black on basal one half or more ………….............................................................……
darada Ghorpade,
1994
- Hind
tibia yellow on basal one half ………………………….........................................................……
3
3. Tergum 5
yellow only on posterior margin ………………….........................................................…
4
- Tergum
5 yellow on posterior and lateral margins ....……….....................................................
rossi Ghorpade,
1994
4. No
obvious stripes at thoracic region .....................................................................................
orsua (Walker, 1852)
- Two
definite greyish stripes on anterior part of thorax ..……..................................................
albostriatus (Fallen, 1817)
For
figure & image - - click here
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