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Hover Flies (diptera: Syrphidae) from Rice Fields and around Grasslands of Northern Iran
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ghahari, Hassan Hayat, Rüstem Tabari, M. Amooghli Ostovan, Hadi |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | The syrphids' fauna of Iran is very diverse and was studied rather well in recent years. In the present paper, 24 species (of 19 genera and 2 subfamilies) were collected from the rice fields and around grasslands of Northern Iran. Of these, Chrysotoxum festivum (Linnaeus), Helophilus hybridus Loew and Melangyna umbellatorum (Fabricius) are newly recorded from Iran. Flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are a large and diverse group of insects. Many species are important pollinators of flowering plants. In addition, the immatures of numerous species are predators of destructive aphids and other pests (Gilbert, 1981). These flies are expert fliers and can hover or fly backward, an ability possessed by few insects other than syrphid flies. The adults mainly feed on nectar and pollen. The females must consume pollen since they need the proteins and amino acids of the pollen for maturation of their eggs. Nectar has only a small amount of these substances but much sugar. It is the fuel for the flies, enabling them to fly and hover actively. Being regular visitors of flowers, hoverflies are important pollinators of various plants including vegetables and fruit trees (e.g. Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Rosaceae). The flies select the flowers mainly by their colours (Kan, 1988). Compared with the adults, the larvae are important predators, feeding primarily on aphids that attack citrus, subtropical fruit trees, grains, corn, alfalfa, cotton, grapes, lettuce and other vegetables, ornamentals, and many wild host plants of the aphids. Three large ecological groups can be distinguished: predators, miners and decomposers (living on dead organic material - saprophagous larvae). All species of the subfamily of Syrphinae have zoophagous larvae. Their main preys are aphids (greenflies). The larvae of Microdontinae are associated with hymenopterans. The Microdontinae larvae are supposed to be zoophagous living in ant nests. Eumerus and Merodon larvae are plant- eating (phytophagous) miners. They live in/at dead bulbs (in fact at least |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.munisentzool.org/yayin/vol3/issue1/275-284.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
