Coenosia attenuata Stein in Becker 1903
Creators: name: Parchami-Araghi, Mehrdad
name: Pont, Adrian C.
name: Gilasian, Ebrahim
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Muscidae
Coenosia
Coenosia attenuata

description: Coenosia attenuata Stein in Becker, 1903
(Figs 21, 29–31)
Material examined. Iran: Ardabil: 7♂♂, 5♀♀, Moghan, Pars-abad, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, 71m, 39°36’54.92”N 47°48’51.87”E, 10.iii.2015 - 4.vi.2016, Malaise trap, N. Golmohamadzadeh-Khiaban (HMIM); Kerman: 5♀♀, Zeh-kalout, Jazmourian Wetland, Chah-Alam, 387m, 27°44’43.2”N 58°34’37”E, 30.iv- 3.v.2017, Malaise trap, palm grove, M. Parchami-Araghi (HMIM); Khuzestan: 18♂♂, 5♀♀, Shoush, Karkheh National Park, 32º4’45.6”N 48º14’27.8”E, 68m, 11.iii–10.v-2015, Malaise trap, E. Gilasian & M. Parchami-Araghi (17♂♂, 3♀♀ CNC, 1♂, 2♀♀ HMIM); 2♂♂, 12♀♀, same data except, 32º04’07”N 48º13’40.3”E, 63m, 29.vi– 4.vii.2013 (CNC); Markazi: 3♂♂, Haftad-Qolleh Protected Area, Sibak valley, 34º5’38.7”N 50º14’22”E, 2088m, 18.iii–8.v.2018, Malaise trap, E. Gilasian & M. Parchami-Araghi (CNC); Sistan-Baluchestan: 1♀, Chabahar, Tiss Natural Garden, 25º21’36.9”N 60º37’20”E, 6m, 31.iii.2019, Malaise trap, M. Parchami-Araghi (CNC); 20♂♂, 15♀♀, Bahukalat village, 25º42’4.8”N 61º25’25.5”E, 23m, 13.ix.2016 – 17.iv.2017, Malaise trap, H. Mousavi (CNC); 1♂, 1♀, Jazmourian Wetland, Jolgeh Chah-Hashem, 27º6’8.3”N 59º7’11.3”E, 388m, 28.iv-2.v.2017, Malaise trap, palm grove, M. Parchami-Araghi (HMIM); 1♂, 7♀♀, Dalgan, Chah-Kamal, 27º29’20.7”N 59º28’15.2”E, 393m, 2-3.v.2017, Malaise trap, palm grove, M. Parchami-Araghi (HMIM); West-Azerbaijan: 4♂♂, 4♀♀, Rashakan, Research Station for Lake Urmia National Park, 37º20’38.8”N 45º17’37.4”E, 1315m, 26.vi–8.vii.2016, Malaise trap, M. Parchami-Araghi (CNC); 3♀♀, Lake Urmia National Park, Kaboudan Island, 37º29’42.4”N 45º38’13.9”E, 1322m, 20-23.vi.2016, yellow & white pan traps, M. Parchami-Araghi (HMIM).
Diagnosis. Coenosia attenuata is closely related to C. humilis from which the male is easily distinguished by its entirely yellow femora, antenna and palpus as well as distinctly elongated cercal plate (Figs 30–31).
Distribution. Primarily an Old World species, C. attenuata is known to occur across the Palaearctic region and Middle East, including Iran (Gregor et al. 2016, Parchami-Araghi et al. 2009, Deeming 2008, Pont 1991a, b, 1986). This species has expanded its distribution into the New World where it was first recorded from Ecuador and Peru (Martínez-Sánchez et al. 2002) and later from the USA and Canada (Hoebeke et al. 2003), Colombia (Pérez-Trujillo 2006), Costa Rica (Hernández-Ramírez 2008), Chile (Couri & Salas 2010), Mexico (Bautista-Martínez et al. 2017), Venezuela (Solano-Rojas et al. 2017) and Brazil (Couri et al. 2018).
Remarks. Coenosia attenuata is increasingly attracting attention worldwide as an effective biological control agent of major greenhouse pests such as whiteflies, leaf-miners, black fungus gnats and small fruit flies (Couri et al. 2018; Pohl et al. 2012). It has been successfully reared on fungus gnats and drosophilids under laboratory conditions (Zou et al. 2017, Martins et al. 2015).
description: Published as part of Parchami-Araghi, Mehrdad, Pont, Adrian C. & Gilasian, Ebrahim, 2020, The genus Coenosia Meigen in Iran, with a key to species and description of a new species (Diptera: Muscidae), pp. 559-574 in Zootaxa 4877 (3) on pages 567-569, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4877.3.8, http://zenodo.org/record/4424383