Hydrotaea capensi s ( Wiedemann, 1818 )

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 : 15-16

Hydrotaea capensi s ( Wiedemann, 1818)

Anthomyia capensis Wiedemann, 1818: 46 . Later transferred into Ophyra Robineau-Desvoidy , now synonymised with Hydrotaea Robineau-Desvoidy.

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Dabbour (1979a; b); Abu-Zoherah et al. (1993); Al-Misned (2003). It was described from South Africa. In the Middle East it is known from Egypt, Iran, Israel, Oman, Syria, Turkey and Yemen ( Pont 1986; Pont 1991; Deeming 2008).

Biological remarks. Larvae (third instar) develop as predators of other soft-bodied insect larvae mostly in dung and carrion ( Skidmore 1985; Deeming 2008). This species has also been reared from bird and mammal nests and from fungi ( Skidmore 1985). Couri et al. (2009) found within the oesophagous of a mummified human corpse at “ Lisbon, Portugal ” dating from the 19 th century a number of larvae, pupae and adult remains of H. capensi s and cite further reports.