First record of Amictus pictus Loew , 1869 ( Diptera : Bombyliidae : Cylleniinae ) from Iran

Amictus pictus Loew, 1869 (Insecta: Diptera: Bombyliidae) is recorded here for the first time from Iran. The specimens were collected from northern Iran during 2010 and 2011. Morphological characters including female genitalia and geographical distribution of the newly recorded species are provided. 1 Tarbiat Modares University, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, P.O.Box: 14115-336. Tehran, Iran 2 Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Entomology, Shahid Beheshti Blvd. No. 118, P. O. Box: 34185618,

The bombiliids or bee flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae) is a large family with over 4600 known species worldwide (Evenhuis and Greathead 1999). These flies are commonly found in arid and semiarid environments (Hull 1973). Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of wild flowers (Hull 1973). Larvae of these flies are predators or parasitoids of other insects (Du Merle 1975).
The genus Amictus Wiedemann belongs to the subfamily Cylleniinae and includes 28 described species in the Palaearctic region (Evenhuis and Greathead 1999). Species of this genus is characterized by the following morphological characters: wing shorter than body; postcranium with deep or shallow troughs around divided occipital foramen; eyes without bisecting line; head with face not broad, base of antennae separated by distance less than length of scape, flagellum lanceolate, as long as scape and pedicel combined; face conically produced, proboscis 2-4 times longer than head length; body narrow, with sparse hairs and small scales, macrochetae long and thick, abdomen elongate (Greathead and Evenhuis 1997). Three species of this genus have previously been recorded from Iran: A. iranicus Lindner, 1975, A. scutellaris Loew, 1869and A. validus Loew, 1869(Evenhuis and Greathead 1999.
New materials were collected from different habitats of the northern Iran using malaise traps during 2010 and 2011 ( Figure 1). Samples were collected between March and November 2010 and 2011. The specimens were extracted from the malaise traps and sorted weekly. Specimens were dehydrated in 99.6% ethanol for 5-10 minutes and then placed in a pure solution of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) for 15-20 minutes. The specimens finally placed in a glass plate for drying and then were labeled. The species were identified using the keys provided by Greathead and Evenhuis (1997), Zaitsev (1966) and Engel (1932. Female genitalia preparations were made by macerating the apical portion of abdomen in cold 10% KOH for 14-15 hours, and then washed with distilled water and transferred to fresh glycerin to study. All specimens are deposited in the insect collection of the Department of Entomology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
In this study, Amictus pictus was collected and identified for the first time from Iran.
Remark: This genus has been reported from tropical, temperate and Mediterranean climates (Evenhuis and Greathead 1999). One species has only been recorded from India (Mitra 2008), four species from Turkey (Dils and Ozbek 2006), six species from Egypt (El-Hawagry 2002) and one species from Spain (Sánchez Rodríguez et al. 2001). In the current study, the specimens were collected from the temperate and cool areas of Iran. Samples were collected in late June and July and no Amictus specimens were observed in other months.