Additions to the Limoniidae and Pediciidae fauna of Morocco, with an updated checklist (Diptera, Tipuloidea)

Abstract Eighteen species of Limoniidae and two species of Pediciidae are recorded for the first time in Morocco, of which 15 species are new to North Africa. An updated checklist of Moroccan short-palped craneflies (Limoniidae and Pediciidae) is appended, containing 73 species in 25 genera.


Introduction
Limoniidae and Pediciidae belong to the Tipuloidea together with Cylindrotomidae and Tipulidae. The Limoniidae comprise more than 741 species already known in the Westpalaeartic region, from which only 102 species are known to occur in Morocco (49), Algeria (32), Tunisia (9), Libye (1) and Egypt (11). The Pediciidae are the second smallest family of the Tipuloidea, with 77 recognized taxa in the Westpalaeartic of which only 4 were recorded from North Africa, in Morocco (Driauach et al. 2013, Oosterbroek 2015.

Material and methods
The material presented in this work come from field campaigns carried out by the authors between 2011 and 2015 in 77 sites distributed over a mountainous area (Rif, High Atlas, Middle Atlas, Beni Snassen) and arid area (Sahara) of Morocco. A total of 564 specimens of short-palped crane flies (515 specimens of Limoniidae and 49 specimens of Pediciidae) were identified. Adults were mostly collected by sweeping vegetation with entomological hand net whereas other specimens were reared in the laboratory from the substratum taken from several zones of water bodies margins and kept under the laboratory conditions. Fresh material was stored in 70% alcohol. For identification, the male terminalia, if necessary, were prepared by boiling in a solution of 10% KOH and preserved in glycerine. All the specimens were collected by the authors and are deposited in the Diptera Collection of the Faculty of Sciences, University Abdelmalek Essaâdi, Tétouan, Morocco. The Distribution as it is given for individual species is based on Oosterbroek (2015).

Discussion
Altogether a number of 570 specimens, most of which (521) belongs to the Limoniidae distributed in 20 genera, whereas only 49 specimens belong to the Pediciidae distributed in 2 genera.
18 species of Limoniidae and 2 species of Pediciidae are newly recorded from Morocco, of which 15 species are provided to be new to North Africa. Those new records extend the distribution of the species to most southern localities of the western Palearctics in Africa. Idiocera (Idiocera) ampullifera represents the most southern record (Sahara) of the Limoniidae in Morocco.
Including our results, the total number of species of Limoniidae and Pediciidae known from Morocco now increases from 53 species to 73 (see chekclist).
These new data of crane flies fauna reflect the variety of suitable habitats prospected, such as are springs, mountain rivers and streams, and stagnant water mainly belonging to forest areas. This suggests that many more species and subspecies can yet be found in Morocco, that enjoys a wide variety of geographical and climatic properties.