Eristalinus tabanoides (Jaennicke, 1867)

(Figs 19–20)

Eristalis tabanoides Jaennicke, 1867: 402

Examined specimens. 1♀ Asir, Maraba, Al-Hudaithy Fruit Farm, 22.iv.2013, Malaise trap, H.A. Dawah (CERS); 1♂, Al-Riyadh, Al Aziziyah, 20.iv.1980, sweeping, A. Talhouk (KSMA).

Distribution. This species was previously recorded from Saudi Arabia by Walker & Pittaway (1987) as E. megacephalus, but it was E. tabanoides as stated by Smit et al. (2017: 578). It was described from Eritrea and is further recorded from the Palaearctic Region: Egypt, Israel, Tunisia; Afrotropical Region: Djibouti, Madagaster (Smith & Vockeroth 1980; Peck 1988; Dirickx 1994; Whittington 2003); Oriental Region: India and Pakistan (Ghorpadé 2014; Sengupta et al. 2016). There are some specimens of E. tabanoides in NMWC from Nigeria and Oman. Smit et al. (2017: 612) listed E. tabanoides as being recorded from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen and Socotra Island.

Remarks. E. tabanoides is very closely related to E. megacephalus, the differences between them are detailed and figured in Speight and Goy (2016). Smit et al. (2017: 574) produced a key for the separation of three species whose identification was in a state of confusion namely: E. megacephalus, E. quinquelineatus (Fabricius 1781), and E. tabanoides. Smit et al. (2017) reported that their key was “based on: Becker (1903), who described the male of E. megacephalus under the name E. quinquelineatus; Becker & Stein (1913) who described the male of E. tabanoides and separated this from the previous species; Collin (1949) who reported the differences between E. megacephalus and E. tabanoides under their respective correct names; and Curran (1939), who clarified the true identity of E. quinquelineatus ”. We verified the identification of E. tabanoides, and E. megacephalus using the key of Smit et al. (2017). There being some confusion about the identification of E. tabanoides and E. megacephalus, we have also compared our specimens with identified Egyptian material of E. megacephalus and Arabian E. tabanoides in NMWC. Nurul Huda et al. (2015) reported that E. tabanoides in Malaysia play a role in the pollination of mango. In this study E. tabanoides was collected from Asir, Maraba, Al-Hudaithy Fruit Farm, which is a mango farm (Table 2). We speculate that it might have a role in mango pollination but this needs to be investigated. We do not know if E. tabanoides is a generalist or specialist in its role in relation to mango pollination.