Musca (Lissosterna) albina Wiedemann, 1830

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A. & Deeming, John C., 2020, The Muscidae (Diptera) of Saudi Arabia, descriptions of two new species, new records and updated list of species, Zootaxa 4869 (1), pp. 1-54 : 11-12

Musca (Lissosterna) albina Wiedemann, 1830 ( Fig. 8 )

Musca albina Wiedemann, 1830: 415 .

Specimens examined. 1f, Asir, Abha, Hay Al-Nusub (Abha farm centre), 1–25.v.2013, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( CERS); 1m , Asir, Abha, Madenate Al-Ameer Sultan, Hay Al-Sad , 25.ii.–25.v.2002, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah ( NMWC); 1m, same data but, 4–25.v.2013 ( CERS) .

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by van Emden (1948); Büttiker (1979); Dawah & Abdullah (2009); El-Hawagry et al. (2013; 2016; 2017). It was described from “Ostindien” [= East Indies]. In the Middle East it has been recorded from Egypt, Iraq, Israel and Oman ( Pont 1980; Pont 1991; Marshall & Pont 2013).

Biological remarks. It is primarily a desert species (Büttiker 1979), recorded as pestering cattle and buffalo. It was reared from a dead tortoise (Vlassov & Stackelberg as quoted by Hennig 1964), but it can be assumed to breed usually in dung ( Pont 1991). Marshall & Pont (2013) reported that M. albina demonstrates kleptoparasitic behaviour on the dung-rolling scarab beetle Scarabaeus damarensis Janssens in Namibia by ovipositing in partially buried dung balls. As far as is known this is the first record of kleptoparasitism in Muscidae . M. albina is a sunloving species feeding on sweat and other secretions, and on the faeces of domestic animals ( Sychevskava 1956).

Figures

FIGURE. 6–9. Muscidae species habitus: 6) Musca (Byomya) lasiophthalma Thomson, 1869, Male; 7) Musca (Byomya) lucidula Loew, 1856, Female; 8) Musca (Lissosterna) albina Wiedemann, 1830, Female; 9) Musca domestica L., ssp. calleva Walker, 1849, Male.