Hover-flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) of the Komsomolsky Nature Reserve, Khabarovsky krai

A check-list of 238 hover-flies species from 64 genera reliably recorded from the Komsomolskii Nature Reserve is given. Eumerus arkadii Mutin, 1999, Neocnemodon simplicipes (Stackelberg, 1952), and Pararctophila oberthueri Hervé–Bazin, 1914 are recorded from Khabarovskii Krai for the first time.

Taxon-specific temporal shifts in pollinating insects in mass-flowering crops and field margins in Ireland

In intensively cropped agricultural landscapes, the vegetation in edges and hedges (henceforth “field margins”) represents an important semi-natural habitat providing fundamental resources for insect pollinators. We surveyed the pollinating insects associated with two mass-flowering crops, apple and oilseed rape, and compared the insect fauna of the main crop with that in the field margins in the grass-dominated agricultural landscapes of Ireland. Different insect groups responded differently to the presence of the flowering crop, with honey and bumble bees more abundant in crops than margins during crop flowering, but more hover flies and butterflies in margins throughout. The composition of the insect assemblage also shifted over time due to taxon-specific changes in abundance. For example, solitary bees were most abundant early in the season, whereas hover flies peaked, and butterflies declined, in mid-summer. The temporal shift in insect community structure was associated with parallel changes in the field margin flora, and, although we found no relationship between insect abundance and abundance of field margin flowers, Bombus abundance and total insect abundance were positively correlated with floral diversity. After the crop flowering period, floral abundance and diversity was maintained via margin plants, but by late summer, floral resources declined. Our results confirm the importance of field margins for insect pollinators of entomophilous crops set within grass-dominated landscapes, even during the crop flowering period, and provide additional support for agri-environment schemes that protect and/or improve field margin biodiversity. The results also demonstrate that although shifts in insect and plant communities may be linked phenologically there may not always be simple relationships between insect and floral abundance and richness.

A list of hover-flies of Bolshoi Shantar Island (the Sea of Okhotsk) with description of a new species of the genus Platycheirus Lepeletier et Serville, 1828 (Diptera: Syrphidae)

Platycheirus shantar sp. n. is described and illustrated from Khabarov¬sky krai in Russia. The holotype of new species is deposited in the Federal Scientific Center of East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Vladivostok, Russia. An annotated list of 41 hover-flies species discovered in the Bolshoi Shantar Island is given; almost all of them are recorded from this island for the first time.

Checklist of hover flies (Diptera, Syrphidae) of the Republic of Georgia

A checklist of the Syrphidae species of the Republic of Georgia is presented. New hover fly (Diptera: Syrphidae) records from Georgia are provided as a result of field work conducted in 2018. At the same time, published syrphid records for the country are here reviewed and updated. A total of 357 species of hoverflies are now documented from Georgia, 40 of which are reported for the first time. Moreover, DNA barcodes were sequenced for 238 specimens, representing 74 species from this country.