abstract the syrphidae family (known as hover flies or flower flies) is one of the largest families of diptera with almost 6000 species. adult flies feed on nectar and pollen of flowers and they are crucial agent in pollinating process. the larvae of many species of syrphidae are predators of aphids and play an important role in biological control of pests. in the following faunestic investigat...

The female of Platycheirus troll Mutin is described. A preliminary key to the females of the Northern Palaearctic species of the Platycheirus clypeatus group is presented. The possibility to identify the undescribed female of Platycheirus magadanensis Mutin is discussed.

Two new species, Platycheirus beringiensis sp. n. and Cheilosia chukotana sp. n., are described from Chukotka (northern part of Russian Far East). The new Platycheirus is close to Platycheirus immarginatus (Zetterstedt), but differing by the following characters: fore tibia with a black stripe on posterior side; mid-femur without fine black curved hairs directed to the base of the femur; mid-ti...

We present the results of evaluating the response of three species of bees, Trigona fulviventris (Guérin), Scaptotrigona mexicana (Guérin-Meneville), and Apis mellifera (L.), to food sources baited with the toxic bait GF-120 (NF Naturalyte), a spinosad-based bait exclusively used to manage fruit flies. Groups of foragers were trained to collect honey and water from a feeder located 50 m from th...

Platycheirus shantar sp. n. is described and illustrated from Khabarov¬sky krai in Russia. The holotype of new species deposited the Federal Scientific Center East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Vladivostok, An annotated list 41 hover-flies discovered Bolshoi Shantar Island given; almost all them are recorded this island for first time.

Organic lettuce, Lactuca sativa L., producers on California's Central Coast rely on endemic syrphid flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) to suppress populations of Nasonovia ribisnigri Mosley (Homoptera: Aphididae) and other aphids affecting lettuce. Growers are using various forms of habitat manipulation to enhance biological control. We surveyed syrphids collected from organic romaine in and around the...

Widely distributed populations of the snapping shrimp, Alpheus floridanus Kinglsey, 1878, from the eastern Pacific and western and eastern Atlantic Ocean have long been suspected to represent different species due to extreme morphological variation among conspecifics. A companion study (Bracken-Grissom & Felder 2014) contains redescriptions of two western Atlantic species (A. floridanus Kingsle...

Records about stingless bee-fungi interaction are very rare. In Brazilian Amazonia, workers of Trigona crassipes (Fabricius, 1793) and Trigona fulviventris Guerin, 1835 visiting two stinkhorn species, Diclyophora sp. and Phallus sp., respectively, were observed. The workers licked the fungi gleba, a mucilaginous mass of spores covering the pi leum. Neither gleba residue nor spores were found on...