One new and first record of four species of genus Forcipomyia Meigen, 1818 (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from India

ABSTRACTOne new species of the subgenus Lepidohelea Kieffer, 1917 of the biting midge genus Forcipomyia Meigen, 1818 collected from Darjeeling Himalaya at an elevation of 2080 metres is described and illustrated. In addition, four species are recorded for the first time from India. These are Forcipomyia (Lasiohelea) ripa Yu & Liu, 2000 and F. (Thyridomyia) frutetorum collected from the Gangetic plains of West Bengal, F. (Lasiohelea) sibirica from Kalimpong at an elevation of 1200 metres at the Shiwalik range of Himalayan foothills and F. (Forcipomyia) distapalpis Liu & Yu, in Liu et al. 2001 from Darjeeling Himalaya. DNA barcoding of the new species and supplementary descriptions of newly recorded species were also done. A key to the subgenera of this genus from India is also provided here.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:01DF267E-5BA4-4645-B6AD-EA6B366E734BKEYWORDS: LasioheleaLepidoheleaThyridomyiaGangetic plainsHimalaya AcknowledgmentsThe authors convey sincere thanks to Dr P.K. Chaudhuri, Former Professor, Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, for thoroughly revising the manuscript. The authors are thankful to the Head, DST–FIST sponsored Department of Zoology, the University of Burdwan for the necessary laboratory facilities to carry out research work. The authors also thank Mr Basudev Das, Senior Technical Assistant, University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC), the University of Burdwan, for his fabrication of the Ultraviolet light traps and Mr Abhijit Roy, Technical Assistant of USIC for assisting to taking the photographs from DM Leica 1000 (Bright field). First author acknowledges financial assistance in the form of Research Fellowship (748/CSIRNETJUNE2019) from the University Grants Commission.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.