Abstract Background Micro bee flies are a group of pollinators distributed mostly in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, where they play an important role in maintaining the natural composition of flora in these landscapes. Doliopteryx Hesse is one of the small genera within this group, currently comprising sixteen species, about half of which occur in the Middle East. However, only three species are known so far from Iran. Results In this paper, a new species of the well-known genus Doliopteryx is described herein and named Doliopteryx dizookensis Gharali, Taheri, Mokhtari, and Evenhuis sp . nov . This new species is closely related to Doliopteryx xanthinion (Evenhuis and Gharali 2020) described from United Arab Emirates, but differs from the latter in the coloration of the antennae and occiput. The study provides detailed diagnoses and high-resolution color photographs of the new species. The species Doliopteryx nodahaki (Gharali and Evenhuis, 2017) is also recorded here from new biogeographical area, expanding its range within the country. An updated key to the species of the genus in the Middle East is also provided. Conclusions This new finding increases the number of Doliopteryx species recorded from Iran to four and shows that the diversity of these tiny pollinators is higher than previously expected. Their distribution, extending from the Afrotropical region into the southern Palaearctic, suggests that these flies may also occur in adjacent countries further north. Proper identification of these small pollinators is further essential for future conservation initiatives, ecological studies, and biodiversity management.
Gharali et al. (Wed,) studied this question.