ISSN 0973-1555(Print) ISSN 2348-7372(Online) HALTERES, Volume 11, 94-97, 2020  MS SOFI, SU BHAT, KA SUBRAMANIAN, I SABHA, I RASHID & JC KUNIYAL doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4405937 94 Deuterophlebia Edwards, 1922 (Diptera: Deuterophlebiidae) an Enigmatic Primitive Diptera (Insecta) from Kashmir Himalaya Mohd Sharjeel Sofi 1 , Sami Ullah Bhat 1 , K.A. Subramanian 2* , Inam Sabha 1 , Irfan Rashid 3 and J.C. Kuniyal 4 1 Aquatic Ecology Lab, Department of Environmental Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kashmir, Srinagar-190006, India. 2 Southern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, #130, Santhome High Road, Chennai-670028, India. 3 Department of Botany, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, Pin-190006, India. 4 G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, Uttarakhand, Pin-263643, India. (Email: subbuka.zsi@gmail.com) Abstract Mountain midges (Deuterophlebiidae) are cold water hill stream insects restricted to Nearctic and Palaearctic regions. Deuterophlebiidae is believed to be a primitive lineage of Diptera and so educes a considerable degree of interest in aquatic entomologists. Due to their restricted geographic distribution and specialized habitats, very little information is available on these primitive enigmatic insects from India. Here we report the discovery of a larva of mountain midge from Kashmir Himalaya after a time gap of forty nine years. Keywords: Deuterophlebia, Diptera, Mountain midges, Hill stream, Kashmir Himalaya. Received: 5 January 2020; Revised: 4 December 2020; Online: 31 December 2020 Introduction Diptera is one among the world’s four most diverse group of insects eminently acclimatized for life at higher elevations. The group is one of the most commonly recognized and widespread insects all over the world (Sarwar, 2020). Out of 158 families of Diptera 41 have aquatic representatives with about 46,000 aquatic species representing about 30% of all formally described species of Diptera (Alder and Courtney, 2019). Every single dipteran fly has its own biological distinctiveness and ecological importance and some aquatic Diptera are regarded as “ecosystem engineers” as these species can considerably change the abiotic habitat and thus affect the ecology of other organisms and associated ecosystem processes (Wotton et al., 1998; Alder and Courtney, 2019). One such case is presented by a cryptic monotypic family of Mountain Midges (Diptera: Deterophlebiidae: Deuterophlebia) that are highly specialized hill stream insects. Mountain midges are mysterious nematocer- ous flies currently represented by a single genus with 15 species restricted to Nearctic and Palaearctic regions (Wiegmann and Yeates, 2017; Pape and Thompson, 2019). Deuterophlebia is evoking considerable interest in both dipterists and aquatic entomologists, not only for their morphological and ecological distinctiveness, but also for its primeval lineage (McAlpine, 1981). The immature stages are highly specialized to inhabit cold fast flowing torrential streams. The larvae have distinct eversible crochet-tipped prolegs and streamlined pupae. The prolegs have elongate setae both anteriorly as well as posteriorly. The mouth parts of adults are atrophied (Courtney, 1994). All larvae are grazers, noshing on the delicate film of periphyton on submerged rocks in streams. Head capsule is eucephalous. Antenna is elongated and split widely. Abdomen eight segmented with segments I-VII with paired, crochet-tipped,