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Study of the robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) in northwestern Iran: new records, description of a new species, and an updated checklist of Iranian fauna

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Abstract

The robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) were studied in northwestern Iran. Specimens were collected using swee** net and Malaise traps during 2010–2019. A total of 27 species were collected and identified, of which five species are recorded for the first time from Iran: Aneomochtherus mundus urartorum (Richter, 1960), Dysmachus cochleatus (Loew, 1854), Erax hayati Tomasovic, 2002, Leptogaster stackelbergi Lehr, 1963, and Stenopogon porcus Loew, 1871. A new species, Crobilocerus flavus Sakhvon & Mohammadi sp. n., is described and illustrated. Nine species are recorded from northwestern Iran for the first time. A key to males of Crobilocerus is provided. An updated list of 309 species and subspecies belonging to ten subfamilies of the robber flies from Iran is provided.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. A.S. Lelej (Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Laboratory of Entomology, Vladivostok, Russia) for valuable comments to an early version of this paper. This work was supported by Tarbiat Modares University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Entomology, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-336, Tehran, Iran

    Rahman Mohammadi, Ali Asghar Talebi & Yaghoub Fathipour

  2. Faculty of Biology, Belarusian State University, Nezavisimosti av., 4, 220030, Minsk, Belarus

    Vital V. Sakhvon

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, University of Tabriz, 51664, Tabriz, Iran

    Samad Khaghaninia

  4. Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

    Farzaneh Kazerani

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  1. Rahman Mohammadi
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  2. Ali Asghar Talebi
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  4. Samad Khaghaninia
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  5. Yaghoub Fathipour
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and identification were performed by [Rahman Mohammadi, Ali Asghar Talebi, Vital V. Sakhvon, and Samad Khaghaninia]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Rahman Mohammadi, Ali Asghar Talebi, Vital V. Sakhvon, and Samad Khaghaninia] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ali Asghar Talebi.

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Mohammadi, R., Talebi, A.A., Sakhvon, V.V. et al. Study of the robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) in northwestern Iran: new records, description of a new species, and an updated checklist of Iranian fauna. Biologia 77, 2487–2496 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01116-5

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