Phthiria fulva Meigen (1804)

(Fig. 5)

Phthiria fulva Meigen (1804): 193 . Type locality: France.

Material examined. 4 ♂, 2 ♀, E 49 ̊17' N 36 ̊33', 1800 m a.s.l., Hosseinabad forest, Tarom region, Qazvin Province, reared from the pupa of Argyresthia sp. ( Yponomeutidae), 29.xii.2007, leg. Babak Gharali.

Diagnosis. This species is distinguished from the other Iranian species of Phthiria having a short dorsal process on the first antennal flagellomere (Fig. 5 b) by the completely black habitus of male densely covered with black hairs (Fig. 5 a). The females of this species have a black abdomen densely covered with short golden hairs (Fig. 5 d), which is unique in the female of Iranian Phthiria .

In the Engel’s (1933) key, our specimens run to Ph. minuta Fabricius, 1805 . Engel (1933) considered Ph. fulva as a synonym of Ph. minuta . Two female syntypes of Ph. fulva were checked by Zaitzev (1997) when he visited Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle Paris, France. He verified the synonymy of Ph. fulva with Ph. minuta . Through the courtesy of Christophe Daugeron, photos of the syntypes (Fig. 5 e) were checked and in our opinion, the synonymy of two species is correct.

This is a Palaearctic species known from France and Belgium (Evenhuis & Greathead 1999). Ph. fulva is recorded from Iran for the first time. Recently Čelechovský (2011) recorded Ph. fulva (as Ph. minuta) from Slovakia.

There are few host records of the genus Phthiria . Du Merle (1975) summarized all information on the host of Bombyliidae in which he listed the hosts for the three species of Phthiria: Ph. pulicaria (Mikan 1796) reared from Scrobipulpula psilella (Herrich-Schäffer 1854) (Gelechiidae); Ph. scolopax Osten Sacken, 1877 reared from Clypeadon laticinctus Cresson 1865) [= Aphilanthops quadrinotatus Ashmead, 1890] ( Sphecidae) and Ph. sulphurea Loew, 1863 reared from Romelea sp. ( Acrididae). The two last species of Phthiria was later transferred by Evenhuis (1986) to the genus Poecilognathus Jaennicke, 1867 in the tribe Poecilognathini .

A few specimens of Ph. fulva were reared from the pupa of the fruit moth, Argyresthia sp. ( Yponomeutidae) in a mountainous endemic microclimate densely covered by Juniperus trees. Lepidopteran cocoons were placed in a rearing cage from which six adult bee flies emerged. Two pupal exuviae were recovered for examination and are described below.

The two tribes of Phthiriinae can be separated based on the morphology of the pupal exuvium by the following key made by checking the pupal exuviae of Ph. fulva Meigen and that of Po. sulphurea Loew illustrated by Hull (1973):

Antennal processes united as a pyramid-shaped truncate tubercle; abdominal spines present on all except first segment.... Phthiriini Antennal processes separate; abdominal spines restricted to first two segments.............................. Poecilognathini