Stiphrolamyra pleskei

Species: Stiphrolamyra pleskei (Becker, 1913) (Fig. 1) Distribution: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq (this study) and Turkey (Hradský & Geller-Grimm 1997; Kemal & Seven 2009; Ghahari et al. 2014) (Fig. 2). Although robber flies are more abundant in steppe and desert landscapes (Astakhov 2011), our observation was made in the mountainous area at an elevation of 1,078 m.a.s.l. in the Bamo-Khoshk Mountain, which is part of the extensive Zagros Mountain forest steppe ecoregion. The general habitat of the area is mainly consisting of rocky cliffs and mountain slopes with deciduous mixed oak forest dominated by Quercus aegilops, Q. brantii, Pistacia euricarpa, P. khinjuk, Acer monospessulanum, and Cartaegus azarolus with many herbaceous communities (Fig. 3). In this study, a single individual was observed in the morning (10 AM), sitting on the shrub branches with its hunted prey, close to a water source inside an orchard. iNaturalist offers millions of digital observations, which are derived from citizen science data. These observations have different applications in scientific research, including species distribution models and interactions between species (Gazdic & Groom 2019; Di Cecco et al. 2021; Heberling et al. 2021). During this study, six observations of S. pleskei in Iraq were obtained on iNaturalist website (iNaturalist.org) from different localities: four from Mosul governorate, one from Halabja governorate, and Qaladze district (Fig. 2). These observations from iNaturalist highlight further potential distribution of this species in Iraq; moreover, in three observations they were photographed with their hunted prey, which increase further understanding of the predation behaviour of this rare species. The biology and natural history of this species is still poorly understood (Ghahari et al. 2014; Kemal & Seven 2009). In this study, the predation of this species on honey bee workers Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758 was observed in four out of a total of seven observations, indicating honey bee workers might be their key prey species. Members of this genus were observed to predate on different insect orders, including Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera (Londt 1983, 1993; Ghahari et al. 2014). Robber flies are efficient predators in both larval and adult stages, feeding on arthropods, mainly insects; therefore, they are a critical component of the ecosystem by maintaining the balance of the insect population and are considered a bioindicator for ecosystem conservation (McCravy 2017). Therefore, adding this species to the list of robber flies of Iraq is crucial; however, the biology and ecology of this species remains poorly understood, and further investigation is necessary and recommended.