ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the hover-fly fauna of “Dravidia,” or central and peninsular India and Sri Lanka, this geographical area made up of land that is most ancient, lying south of the recently formed Indo-Gangetic Plains, the Himalayas, and the north-eastern, “Assam” areas of Indian sub-continent. For preparing the checklist given below, almost all published work on hover-flies of central and peninsular India and Sri Lanka was consulted. Most flies taken on 19th November 2006 were caught while visiting flowers of Polygonum chinense L. near Kookal in the morning hours, coming in large numbers. Male flies were also taken hovering singly in forest shade in Longwood sholah, near Kookal, and on the Nandi Hills. The larvae feed on a wide variety of prey, and the adult flies are invariably present wherever plants are infested with aphids. Besides feeding on cotton aphids, the larvae also “were found mainly feeding on young nymphs of coccids which attack the shoots of the cotton plant.”.
