First record of the hoverfly genus Spilomyia Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae) for Pakistan

The genus Spilomyia Meigen, 1803 along with Spilomyia manicata (Rondani, 1865) are recorded for the first time from Swat valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The diagnostic characters with photographs and distribution map of this rarely known species from Pakistan and its neighboring countries are provided.

The genus Spilomyia Meigen, 1803 is a Holarctic genus, which currently includes 38 described species with a few representatives from the Neotropics and the Oriental regions (Wachkoo et al. 2019;Van Steenis 2000). The adults prefer to live in open areas having flowers with nectar (Thompson & Rotheray 1998) and their larvae are associated with damp, rotten timber in hollow trees and the decaying heartwood of deciduous trees (Maier 1982;Copeland 1989).
The species of the genus Spilomyia bear morphological and behavioral resemblance to social wasps in the field and can easily be differentiated from the other members of family Syrphidae by the presence of the following combination of characters: brown color pattern on eyes, apicoventral spur on hind femur and wing with cell R1 open (Van Steenis 2000).
Material and Methods: The observation of this species took place on agricultural land having mixed grasses and wild flowers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan at an elevation of 760 m. The specimen was identified using Van Steenis (2000) and Watchkoo et al. (2019). The distribution map was updated after Watchkoo et al.
(2019) and current data. The specimen was photographed using an Olympus SZX7 stereomicroscope with a Sony CCD digital camera attached. The identified specimen is deposited at the National Insect Museum, Islamabad,Pakistan (reg. no: 105).

Family
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