%0 Journal Article
%T Diversity of Hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) Communities in Different Habitat Types in Zanjan Province, Iran
%A Masumeh Naderloo
%A Shahrokh Pashaei Rad
%J ISRN Zoology
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/162343
%X The diversity of hoverfly communities was studied in four different habitat types (river side, woodland, fruit garden, and rice field) in the years of 2008 and 2009. Adult hoverflies were collected from different habitants in Zanjan province. A total of 31 species with 750 individuals of hoverflies were collected, among which Sphaerophoria scripta (Linnaeus), Eristalis arbustorum (Linnaeus) and Eristalis tenax (Linnaeus) were found to be the most abundant. Records from these four sites were used in the diversity analysis. The results indicated that river side and rice field showed the highest and lowest degree of species richness and species diversity. Also, river side and rice field showed the highest and lowest species evenness, respectively. 1. Introduction The Syrphidae family, commonly named hoverflies or flower flies, comprises almost 6000 species worldwide and is one of the largest families of Diptera [1]. The adults feed on nectar and pollen of flowering plants. They are considered an important group of insects in agriculture and play a major role as pollinators [2]. While almost all the adult hoverflies feed on pollen or nectar, Syrphid larvae show heterogeneous alimentary habits. Larval feeding modes of Syrphidae include phytophagous (Eumerus Meigen and Merodon Meigen), mycetophagous (Celosia Meigen), saprophagous (most Milesiinae), and zoophagous (Syrphinae and Pipizini). Aphidophagous hoverflies are important as biological control agents of various aphids [2]. Hoverflies can be found everywhere except in dry area. Each species tends to prefer a certain type of habitat and is limited to a distinct range within the country. So adult hoverflies can be collected where they feed on flowers, some in places where they oviposit and where they hover in sunlight or rest on foliage [3]. Because the Syrphidae larvae can be found in a broad range of land cover types, and the adults are mostly found in areas with flowers, a very heterogeneous land cover type will contain most of the (a) biotic factors needed by the majority of the hoverflies. This will implicate that, when the heterogeneity of the land cover type will increase, this will have a positive effect on the biodiversity of the hoverflies. Due to dependence on flowers in their adult stage areas with a large amount of different flowers (mostly of the Umbelliferae family) will increase locally the hover flies species diversity. The majority of the hoverflies can be found within diverse habitats like forests, woodlands, marches, bogs, gardens peat land and residential areas [4]. Due to highly
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.zoology/2014/162343/