Eristalinus aeneus ( Scopoli, 1763 )

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A., Ahmad, Syed Kamran, Al-Dhafer, Hathal & Turner, James, 2020, An overview of the Syrphidae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 4855 (1), pp. 1-69 : 19

Eristalinus aeneus ( Scopoli, 1763)

( Fig. 17 )

Conops aeneus Scopoli, 1763: 356

Examined specimens. 4♂, Al-Riyadh, Ad Dir’iyah, 20 Km. W. Al-Riyadh, 24.xii.1989, Amr ( KSMA) .

Distribution. Cosmopolitan species. The species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Abou El-Elg (1978) and Walker & Pittaway (1987). It was described from Slovenia and also recorded from the following: Afrotropical Region: Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates and Yemen; Palaearctic Region: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azores Islands, Canary Islands, Egypt, Europe, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Madeira Island, Mongolia, Morocco, Syria, Sweden, Tunisia; Nearctic Region: United States, Pacific Islands; Oriental Region: China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka; Australasian Region: Australia, Hawaii ( Smith & Vockeroth 1980; Walker & Pittaway (1987); Peck 1988; Dirickx 1994; Whittington 2003; Naderloo et al. 2011; Ghorpadé 2014; Khosravian et al. 2015; Sengupta et al. 2016; Smit et al. 2017; Haffaressas et al. 2017; Mebarkia et al. 2020; Speight 2020).

Remarks. E. aeneus is regularly found hovering very fast and low over bare ground or stones as well as vegetation. The behaviour is reminiscent of muscid flies, but the eyes being covered with dark spots immediately announced the fly’s identity. The larvae have the anal segment elongated into a long siphon and live in a semi-aquatic environment, filtering bacteria and organic material. When the larvae found in coastal situations can develop in rotting seaweed in rock pools along shorelines ( Haffaressas et al. 2017), but inland it has been found associated with animal dung in wet situations and even in sewage farms ( Stubbs & Falk 2002; Speight 2020). It was found thriving in a pool in Wadi Amdat, Dhofar, Oman, in which the water was heavily contaminated with heavy metals and contained mats of colourful algae (J.C. Deeming, per.comm.). In Europe it hibernates as an adult.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Habitus of Eristalinus aeneus (Scopoli, 1763). Female, lateral view.