First Record of Baccha maculata Walker, 1852 (Diptera: Syrphidae) from the Pothwar Punjab, Pakistan

Muhammad Asghar Hassan1, Imran Bodlah1*, Ayesha Aihetasham2, Muhammad Adnan Bodlah3, Khadim Hussain4

1Insect Biodiversity and Conservation Group, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Crop and Food Sciences, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agricultural University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

2Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

3Fareed Biodiversity and Conservation Centre, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan

4Department of Botany, Govt. M.A.O. College, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract | The hoverfly genus Baccha Fabricius, 1805 is a rarely collected aphidophagous hoverfly from Pakistan is newly recorded for the Pothwar region of Punjab. In this paper the detailed taxonomic note on Baccha maculata Walker, 1852, supplementary photographs, habitat information, previous distribution and remarks are provided.

Article History

Received: March 11, 2018

Revised: October 26, 2019

Accepted: October 31, 2019

Published: December 04, 2019

Authors’ Contributions

MAH collected the samples and wrote the paper. IB reviewed the article. MAB collected the data and proofread the article. AAand KH provided research guideline.

Keywords

New record, Hoverflies, Baccha, Syrphidae, Pothwar

Corresponding author: Imran Bodlah, imranbodlah@gmail.com

To cite this article: Hassan, M.A., Bodlah, I., Aihetasham, A., Bodlah, M.A. and Hussain, K., 2019. First record of Baccha maculata walker, 1852 (Diptera: Syrphidae) from the Pothwar Punjab, Pakistan. Punjab Univ. J. Zool., 34(2): 133-135. https://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pujz/2019.34.2.133.135

Introduction

The members of the family Syrphidae (Diptera) are commonly known as hoverflies or syrphid flies with more than 6000 described species in 14 tribes under the three subfamilies, Syrphinae, Eristalinae and Microdontinae (Thompson, 2006; Thompson and Rotheray, 1998). Immature stages in subfamily Syrphinae are natural enemies of soft-bodied Hemiptera, other Diptera, Neuroptera, Acari, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera or Thysanoptera (Rojo et al., 2003).

The genus Baccha Fabricius, 1805 was described based on the type species Syrphus elongatus Fabricius, 1775. Species belonging to this genus are exceptionally slender hoverflies, characterized by petiolate abdomen. Because of the characteristic shape of the abdomen they also called ‘flying pins’. Baccha species prefer shady parts of forests. Their larvae are zoophagous; feed on aphids and other homopterans (Van Veen, 2010). Genus Baccha belongs to the subfamily Syrphinae and the tribe Bacchini. There are some other syrphid genera having the petiolate abdomen, e.g. Allobaccha Curran, 1928, Asiobaccha Violovich, 1976 and Ocyptamus Macquart, 1834 but they belong to the tribe Syrphini (Peck, 1988; Mengual et al., 2008).

Recently, the Syrphid fauna of Pakistan was updated by Shehzad et al. (2017) which showed no record of this genus from Pakistan. Hassan et al. (2018) reported this genus for the first time from Banjosa lake, Azad Jammu and Kashmir as new country record. Ghorpadé (2015a) reported two species viz.; Baccha maculata Walker, 1852 and Baccha tinctipennis Brunetti, 1907 under this genus from India. He discussed the detailed taxonomic notes on these two species with synonyms and previous records. Ghorpadé (2015b) reported Baccha maculate from the Nepal Himalaya.

The aim of the present study is to provide information about the presence of newly recorded species Baccha maculata for the Pothwar region of Punjab, Pakistan.

Materials and Methods

The examined material was collected from different forest areas at Murree (Numb Behra Mall and Kuldana) in Pothwar region of Punjab, Pakistan during 2017. The adult specimens were collected by sweep net from the dense vegetation of crested Philippine violet (Barleria cristata L.) infested with Aphis gossypii Glöver, 1877 under the shade of pine trees (Pinus wallichiana). The collected specimens were killed in a killing jar containing potassium cyanide. After killing, the specimens were pinned and studied under Olympus SZX7 stereomicroscope. Photographs were taken with a Nikon Digital Sight DS-Fi1camera attached to a Nikon SMZ 1500binocular stereomicroscope. The photographs were edited in Adobe Photoshop CS v. 6.0 software. The following reference was used for the identification: Brunetti (1923). Terminology used in diagnostic characters follows Thompson (1999). The identified specimens were deposited at the National Insect Museum, Islamabad, Pakistan and Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agricultural University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Results

Subfamily syrphinae

Tribe bacchini: Genus Baccha Fabricius, 1805: Diagnostic characters

The species belonging to this genus have extremely slender and petiolate abdomen, 2nd and 3rd tergites much narrower than scutellum. Postpronotum and anterior anepisternum bare. Face and scutellum black, face generally swollen in centre, the swollen forming an indefinite bump, or distinct facial tubercle. Alula of wings not developed (Brunetti, 1923; Thompson and Rotheray, 1998; Láska et al., 2013).

Baccha maculata Walker, 1852

Figures 1 (A-D) and 2 (A-C)

Material examined (13 ex.): Pakistan: Punjab

Murree: 3♂,6♀; Numb Behra Mall, 2147m, N33°53’55.52’ E73°22’13.43, 4.v.2017, 22.ix.2017, 24.ix.2017, 3.x.2017, 12.x.2107, 26.x.2017; 1♂,3♀, Kuldana, 1928m, N33°54’50.77’ E73°23’52.21, 12.v.2017, leg. M.A. Hassan.

Diagnostic characters

Face mainly black, in lower part yellow, with distinct facial tubercle or forming an indefinite bump; antennae yellowish orange; in female frons greyish dusted along the margin of eyes; legs entirely yellow except hind legs, metafemur with subapical black band, apical 1/3 of metatibia blackish, metatarsi blackish; anterior cross vein of wing suffused, pterostigma dark brown, oblong-shaped,, narrow brown streak present from bifurcation of 2nd and 3rd veins down to upper margin of anal cell.

Taxonomic notes: ♀, ♂; Head

Frons shiny black, largely greyish dusted along the eyes in female, narrowly dusted in male, covered with white pile. Antennae yellowish orange. Ocellar triangle at some distance from vertex. Face black, greyish dusted, except shining tubercle, lower part of face and mouth parts yellowish. Occiput with distinct white hairs. Thorax: Scutum and scutellum shiny, bluish reflection, covered with short greyish hairs. Postpronotum bare, yellow; posterior half of posterior anepisternum yellow with greyish pubescence, remaining parts of pleuron blue with blue reflection. Halters yellowish with blackish knob; wings with dark pterostigma, tip of subcostal cell, anterior cross vein and a streak from bifurcation of 2nd and 3rd veins down to upper margin of anal cell brownish, alula absent. Legs mainly yellow, except blackish mesocoxa, metacoxa, subapical part of metafemur and, apical 1/3 of metatibia. Abdomen: First abdominal tergite shiny blue with blue reflection narrowly brownish at base, conical in shape, anterolaterally with patch of white hairs; tergite 2 completely black with bluish refelection, covered with sparse whitish hairs; tergite 3 black, except basal 1/5th whitish in female, narrowly yellowish at base in male, narrowly wide towards the apical side in female, parallel in male covered with sparse yellowish hairs dorsally and posterolaterally with patch of black hairs; tergite 4 in basal 1/3rd yellowish-orange covered with white hairs, remaining black with dorsal white lateral black hairs, broadly wide towards the apical side in female, conical shaped, basal 1/4th yellowish-orange with some sparse white hairs, remaining black with black hairs, slightly wider towards apical side in male; tergite 5 in female black, basally brownish remaining abdominal tergites black covered with completely short black hairs, narrows towards to its apex, in male tergite 5 as wide as long, covered with black hairs; last two abdominal segments in female usually small with complete short black hairs; sternites yellowish in female, 1st, 2nd, basal half of 3rd and 4th sternites yellowish orange, remaining black in male, 4th and 5th abdominal tergites laterally inverted leaving a hollow line in the sternites of male, with short yellowish hairs.

Distribution: Pakistan

Azad Kashmir, Banjosa lake (Hassan et al., 2018), Murree: Numb Behra Mall and Kuldana; India: Nepal (Ghorpadé, 2015a and b).

Discussion

Hassan et al. (2018) reported the genus Baccha with Baccha maculate for the first time from Poonch district Azad Kashmir at an elevation of 1828.8 m, as a new record for Pakistan. They remarked that this species usually prefers shady areas of pine forests. We collected this species from the same habitat, on the different localities at Murree (1928–2147.316 m). This is the first record of Baccha maculate for the Pothwar region of Punjab, Pakistan.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thanks Valentin Nidergas for critically reviewing the manuscript and gave his suggestion for its improvement.

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