Sepedon spinipes (Scopoli, 1763)

Khaghaninia, S., Kazerani, F. & Vala, Jean-Claude, 2018, New Data About Snail-Killing Flies (Diptera, Sciomyzidae) In Iran, Vestnik Zoologii 52 (1), pp. 21-30 : 25

Sepedon spinipes (Scopoli, 1763)

Material examined: Iran: East Azerbaijan Province, Qaradagh (forest habitat) [38°51´N, 46°52´E, 1770 m], 14.06.2010, 2 ♂ (Khaghaninia leg.).

Distribution. Widely distributed in the Palaearctic Region, North Africa, Mediterranean islands, Turkey, Siberia, Armenia. Iran: Knutson et al. (1973); Motamedi et al. (2006).

Biology. From laboratory rearing, Neff, Berg (1966) elucidated the life cycle and described all the immature stages. The larvae are typical aquatic predators of snails such Helisoma , Physa , and Planorbis whose tropical Biomphalaria spp. implicated as intermediate hosts of Schistosoma parasitizing human ( Neff, Berg, 1966). The puparium, formed out of the water, is unusually glued on the ventral side to an emerged substratum ( Neff, Berg, 1966). This species is multivoltine and overwinters as an adult (Berg et al., 1982).