First record of Myophthiria zeylanica Maa, 1980 (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) from India

Myophthiria is a highly specialised genus of brachypterous hippoboscid flies parasitising swifts and swiftlets (Apodidae). Myophthiria zeylanica Maa, 1980 has been considered endemic to Sri Lanka. Here we report the first record of M. zeylanica from India, based on a single female collected from an Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor (Jerdon, 1840)) found dead during a field visit in the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, at 2238 m a.s.l. The specimen was identified based on external morphology following Maa (1980). This record provides new distributional data for this rarely collected swiftlet-associated louse-fly.