Leendert-Jan van der Ent1, Wouter van Steenis2, Jeroen van Steenis3 & Menno van Zuijen4

1 Sara Mansveltweg 19, 6874 CB, Wolfheze, The Netherlands

2 Vrouwenmantel 18, 3621 TR Breukelen, The Netherlands.

3 Syrphidae Foundation, Hof der Toekomst 48, 3823HX Amersfoort, The Netherlands

4 Kolkakkerweg 21-2, NL-6706 GK Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Bulgaria is, amazingly, one of the last countries in Europe without a proper hoverfly checklist. Based on literature data and additional country records from the European Red List of hoverflies (https://www.iucnredlist.org ), a list of 383 Bulgarian hoverflies was composed. This is 80 more than was published recently in a compilation of all Bulgarian Diptera species based on primarily Bulgarian literature. However, many of these species records are old (< 1970) and not all parts of Bulgaria have been investigated. For an up-to-date checklist we need more and especially recent data. The first author visited Bulgaria in 2019 and collected some additional species from Rila and Pirin mountains. In spring 2022 (May 22- June 5), a hoverfly collecting trip was conducted visiting parts of Strandza NP, Eastern and Western Rhodopes and the surroundings of Sofia. So far, from this trip, more than 200 hoverfly species have been identified, at least 20 are new species records for Bulgaria. We will present the results at the symposium, and we ask you to collaborate if you have any records of Bulgarian hoverflies. The coming years we plan to identify all Syrphidae in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. Additionally, we will organise more collections trips to Bulgaria. Within a few years we expect to present a comprehensive checklist of an estimated number of 450 to 500 species which is about half the number of European hoverfly species.