FAUNA OF THE FAMILY DOLICHOPODIDAE (DIPTERA) OF THE ASTRAKHAN STATE NATURE BIOSPHERE RESERVE (RUSSIA)

The paper presents a critical review of the Dolichopodidae family in the Astrakhan State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Russia). In total, 23 species from the Dolichopodidae family were indicated for this Protected Area. Four of these species have been recorded for the first time for both Europe and Russia: Asyndetus albipalpus, Asyndetus chaetifemoratus, Chrysotus dorli, Hercostomus rubroviridissimus. In addition, Dolichopus jaxarticus and Sciapus subvicinus are new species for Russia. Twenty species (Asyndetus albipalpus, Asyndetus chaetifemoratus, Asyndetus latifrons, Campsicnemus filipes, Campsicnemus simplicissimus, Chrysotus cilipes, Chrysotus dorli, Dolichopus calinotus, Dolichopus cilifemoratus, Dolichopus latilimbatus, Dolichopus jaxarticus, Hercostomus convergens, Hercostomus rubroviridissimus, Medetera diadema, Medetera plumbella, Nematoproctus longifilus, Poecilobothrus bigoti, Rhaphium penicillatum, Sciapus longulus, Sciapus subvicinus) are firstly recorded for the Astrakhan region. To date, 34 Dolichopodidae species are known in the Astrakhan region. However, further studies of the Dolichopodidae fauna in Protected Areas are needed for a more comprehensive knowledge on this Diptera family in Russia and in Eurasia as a whole.


Introduction
According to the fauna of the family Dolichopodidae of the Astrakhan region, fragmentary information is available in the literature. In Stackelberg (1933) and Negrobov et al. (2013), two species are mentioned for the Astrakhan region: Dolichopus zernyi Parent, 1927 andHydrophorus praecox (Lehmann, 1822).
This study was aimed to review and generalise the whole material on Dolichopodidae fauna in the Astrakhan State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Russia).

Material and Methods
Material was collected by students of the Voronezh State University during field practice in the Astrakhan State Nature Biosphere Reserve ( Fig. 1), using yellow pan traps. For this purpose, water was poured into the yellow pan traps with detergent. Then the captured specimens were transferred into 70% alcohol. In total, 1490 specimens were collected by G.B. Lopyreva and M.Yu. Anokhin in 2014, and by S.A. Bykovsky in 2017.
The vegetation cover consists of hygrophytes and hydrophytes. At this site, hygrophytes are represented by communities of Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. and Typha angustifolia L. (Fig. 2). The group of hydrophytes includes Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., Sparganium erectum L. s.l., Butomus umbellatus L., Sagittaria sagittifolia L., and Alisma gramineum Lej. (Fig. 3).     (Lopyreva, Anokhin). This is a rare species, known from South-West Europe, Morocco, and southern Ukraine. In Russia it was discovered in the Rostov region and Voronezh region. This is the first record for the Astrakhan region.
Chrysotus dorli (Lopyreva, Anokhin). This is a rare species, known from southwestern Europe. In Russia it was discovered only in the North Caucasus (Grichanov et al., 2006). This is the first record for the Astrakhan region.
The species Dolichopus sabinus Haliday, 1838 was noted by Lopyreva et al. (2014). It should be referred to the species Dolichopus calinotus. The latter differs from Dolichopus sabinus on the base of the hypopygium structure (Fig. 5).
Rhaphium penicillatum Loew, 1850 Material. 1 ♂, Obzhorovsky branch, shore of the channel Poldnevoe, 11.07.2014 (Lopyreva, Anokhin). It is known from Iran, Europe and Russia -from the Leningrad region, Voronezh region, Krasnoyarsky Krai, in the North Caucasus. This is the first record for the Astrakhan region.
Sciapus subvicinus Grichanov, 2007 Material. 2 ♂, 11 ♀, Damchiksky branch, bank of the River Bystraya, 02.07.2014; Obzhorovsky branch, shore of the channel Poldnevoe, 15-16.07.2014 (Lopyreva, Anokhin). It is described from the south of Ukraine, listed for the fauna of Armenia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. This is the first record for Russia.
This work provides data on four species new for both Europe and Russia: Asyndetus albipalpus, Asyndetus chaetifemoratus, Chrysotus dorli, and Hercostomus rubroviridissimus. In addition, Sciapus subvicinus and Dolichopus jaxarticus are new species for Russia. Thus, 23 species from the Dolichopodidae family were found in the Astrakhan State Nature Biosphere Reserve. Twenty of these species are recorded for the first time for the Astrakhan region. In total, to date 34 species from the family Dolichopodidae are known from the Astrakhan region taking into account previously known species.
The studies of Dolichopodidae species of Protected Areas are extremely inadequate, being represented by separate regional faunistic lists. The most complete species list of this taxonomic group is published for the Caucasus State Natural Biosphere Reserve, which contains 151 species, including 25 endemics for the Caucasus and the endemic genus Guzeriplia Negrobov, 1968(Negrobov, 1967, 1968, Negrobov & Shamshev, 1984Negrobov & Selivanova, 2005;Grichanov et al., 2006).
The first record of the genus Nepalomyia Hollis for the Western Palearctic has been revealed from the Teberda State Nature Biosphere Reserve .
From the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Biosphere Reserve, 20 species of the Dolichopodidae family are known (Tamarina et al., 1984). There are five species in the territory of Wrangel Island Nature Reserve (Grichanov & Khruleva, 2018). Twenty species are indicated for the Tigirekskii State Nature Reserve . Twenty nine species are known from the Utrish State Nature Reserve (Kustov et al., 2016). Finally, 25 species are noted from the West Kotlin State Nature Reserve (Grichanov & Ovsyannikova, 2017).
In addition, a number of species lists and new species descriptions was published from the following Protected Areas: Voronezh State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Central Chernozem State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Khopersky State Nature Reserve, State Nature Reserve «Galichya Gora», State Nature Reserve «Stolby», Lapland State Nature Biosphere Reserve, Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve, Barguzinsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve, State Nature Reserve «Kedrovaya Pad» (see: Negrobov et al., 2013).
Thus, there are numerous and scattered data on the Dolichopodidae family from many regions of Russia. Therefore, further studies, including field inventories, critical reviews, are needed for revealing data on distribution, ecology, taxonomy of the Dolichopodidae family in Russia and Eurasia as a whole.