Simulium (Nevermannia)

Crosskey, R. W., 2002, A taxonomic account of the black y fauna of Iraq and Iran, including keys for species identi cation (Diptera: Simuliidae), Journal of Natural History 36 (15), pp. 1841-1886 : 1867-1868

8. Simulium (Nevermannia) ru corne Macquart

Iran references. None.

Iraq references. Ibrahim et al. (1985, rst record for Iraq), Crosskey and Howard (1997, world inventory entry).

Material seen

Iraq: 9, 3 (all alcohol), Karbala Province, Ain-al-Tamur (5 Ain el Tamr) (32ss45¾/43ss22¾), 23 January 1977 (Kassal). 21 larvae, Karbala Province, Shiaeb, creek between Karbala and Shithathah (ca 32ss34¾/43ss44¾), 27 January 1977 ( Kassal ). 1 (alcohol), Karbala Province, Shithathah desert oasis (32ss34¾/43ss30¾), at light, 20 April 1988 (Mohsen) .

Remarks

This species occurs over an enormously wide range on the African continent, in Réunion (type locality) and neighbouring Indian Ocean islands, in some Atlantic Ocean islands (Cape Verdes and Canaries), in the southern Iberian peninsula and in the Middle East (including Oman), but there is no unequivocal evidence that a species complex is involved. There is huge variation in the form of the four- lamented pupal gill (e.g. see Crosskey and Büttiker, 1982), sometimes even at the same site, but this seems not to be correlated with any other diVerences. The species is typically associated with watercourses in arid habitats, such as the Saharan oases, and it is perhaps not surprising that Ibrahim et al. (1985) should have found it in desert areas of central Iraq — extending the known range further to the north-east than its previous limits in Egypt (Sinai) and Jordan. As listed above, the material I have seen is from parts of Karbala Province not far from the Euphrates, but Ibrahim et al. (1985) also found S. ru corne far out in the desert at the oasis of Nukhayb (5Al Nikhaib) (32ss03¾/42ss16¾) and at Badrah (5Badra) (33ss06¾/45ss58¾) in Wasit Province north of the Tigris. It is not clear yet how much variation occurs in the pupal gills of Iraqi populations, especially as at least six of the drawings of the gill given by Ibrahim et al. (1985) are obviously copied from illustrations in Crosskey (1967) and Crosskey and Büttiker (1982) and pertain to pupae from Egypt and Arabia.

Larvae seen from Iraq agree closely with those from elsewhere, for example with regard to the very prominent median and corner teeth of the hypostomium (gure 24), the unusually large mandibular serrations ( Crosskey, 1960: 46, gure 95) and the virtual absence of anterolateral head-spots, but the postgenal cleft is rather smaller than is usual (gure 16).

Mention should be made of Simulium (Nevermannia) avipes, described by Austen (1921) on the basis of four male ies found dancing in a swarm in the dry wadi bed at ‘Ain Qilt (5Wadi el Kelt) (31ss50¾/35ss23¾) in the Jordan valley near Jericho. These ies (holotype and paratypes) were collected by Austen himself on 1 June 1918. The species is a very close relative of S. (N.) ru corne and might occur in Iraq, presuming it is not extinct; no specimens have ever been found since collection in 1918, so the female and early stages remain undescribed. The male of S. avipes diVers conspicuously from that of S. ru corne by having the hind basitarsus enormously enlarged ( Crosskey, 1967: 11, gure 7), but the genital ventral plates of the two species are more or less identical (cf. gures 75 and 77), as also are most other features of the hypopygium.