A new species and an updated checklist of the genus Spogostylum Macquart (Bombyliidae: Diptera) from Egypt

Abstract

Abstract Species of the genus Spogostylum are ectoparasitoids of solitary bees and wasps (order: Hymenoptera), Meloidae (order: Coleoptera), and immature stages of Pyralidae (order: Lepidoptera). Some species were also recorded as predators of egg pods of Acrididae (order: Orthoptera). Spogostylum niphasoides sp. nov. was collected from South Sinai, Egypt. It is described in the present study where it differs from closely related species in having all hairs and bristles mostly white, except some few hairs on outer side of pedicel, short spines on legs, and short hairs on costal margin of wing which are black. Also, antennae and legs mostly yellowish-brown, tibial spines short, about half the tibial width, and the male genitalia are obviously distinctive, having the aedeagal sheath with a broad and complicated tip, enclosing the aedeagal tip. An updated checklist of the Egyptian Spogostylum spp. is provided