Contributions to the Dance Flies (Diptera: Empididae) of Siirt Fauna, Turkey

Abstract

The adults of the Empidid flies are small to medium-sized, usually shiny black or densely grey dusted species. The adults are very important in pollination because they are flower visitors. Turkey has a wide variety of habitats and species diversity. Although it seems to consist mostly of flat plains, mountainous regions are also found in the east and northeast parts. For this reason, species diversity has increased. Siirt province is rich in steppe but forests cover less space and the summers are quite hot and arid. Siirt also has variable elevation and this positively affects species diversity. This study was carried out in Siirt between 2014-2016. Specimens were collected from different habitats with using a hand net. As a result of the field studies, 15 empidid species were determined in Siirt Province. Among these 15 species, five species belong to the genus Hilara and ten species belong to the genus Empis. And also, Hilara clavidipes Chvála, 2008, H. freidbergi Chvála, 2008 and H. fusitibia Strobl, 1899 are new records for the Turkish fauna. When we compare the species number of the Empididae family from the world and Europe, the number of the known species from Turkey is relatively low, thus constituting the idea that Turkey should be better screened with local faunistic studies.

Keywords

• hilara
• empis
• empididae
• fauna
• siirt