Two species of the hoverfly genus Eumerus Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae) new record for Pakistan

Abstract

An updated checklist of the genus Eumerus Meigen, 1822 is presented from Pakistan along with two new country records, i.e., Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 and Eumerus sogdianus Stackelberg, 1952. Eumerus sogdianus is native to Central and Southern Europe, but recorded from east to Central and Southern Asia, and Eumerus vestitus is native to the Afrotropical region, but recently also recorded from India. Both species are collected from northern areas of Pakistan – the extreme edge of the western Himalayas, where a significant diversity of hoverflies has been reported in recent studies. A brief diagnosis, identification key, and a taxonomic remark on known Pakistani Eumerus species are presented. A distribution map and detailed photographs of the newly recorded species are also presented.

An updated checklist of the hoverflies of Nepal (Diptera: Syrphidae)

“…Incomplete records in certain sites shows the ongoing challenges in surveying and recording hoverfly diversity. The diversity of hoverflies in Nepal, estimated around 205 species, is nearly double that found in Pakistan, which hosts approximately 100 species (Hassan et al, 2022)). However, it constitutes more than half of total number of Indian hoverfly species (357 species: Ghorpadé 2015b), and less than onequarter of the hoverfly species in China (957 species: Yang et al, 2020).…”

“…Zoogeographical distribution. Oriental and Palaearctic -INDIA (Ghorpadé, 2015b), PAKISTAN (Shehzad et al, 2017;Hassan et al, 2022).…”

Faunistics of Syrphid flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) from Chakesar Valley, District Shangla, Pakistan and their biogeographic association

“…Most recently, 53 species of syrphid ies have been reported from the northernmost regions of Pakistan, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (Fatima and Yang 2022). While two species of the syrphid of the genus Eumerus have been recorded from the north of Pakistan to the extreme limit of the western Himalayas, reported species are Eumerus vestitus Bezzi and Eumerus sogdianus Stackelberg however, both are new records for Pakistan (Hassan et al 2022).…”