Five new records of bee flies (Bombyliidae, Diptera) from Saudi Arabia with zoogeographical remarks

Abstract

Five bee-fly species (Bombyliidae, Diptera) have been listed in this paper as new to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Four of the recorded species have been identified to the level of species, namely: Bombomyia discoidea (Fabricius, 1794), Spogostylum candidum (Sack, 1909), Exoprosopa linearis Bezzi, 1924, and Exoprosopa minos (Meigen, 1804), while the fifth one only to genus, Desmatoneura sp. The species have been collected from Al-Baha and Asir Provinces in the south-western part of the Kingdom. One of the four identified species, Exoprosopa linearis, has an Afrotropical affinity, and another two, Spogostylum candidum and Bombomyia discoidea, have considerable Afrotropical distributions, and this result agrees to some extent with studies considering these parts of the Arabian Peninsula, including Al-Baha and Asir Provinces, having Afrotropical influences and may be included in the Afrotropical Region rather than in the Palaearctic Region or the Eremic zone.