Mesembrius morio (Bezzi, 1915)

Jordaens, Kurt, Goergen, Georg, Skevington, Jeffrey H., Kelso, Scott & Meyer, Marc De, 2021, Revision of the Afrotropical species of the hover fly genus Mesembrius Rondani (Diptera, Syrphidae) using morphological and molecular data, ZooKeys 1046, pp. 1-141 : 1

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1046.57052

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:66E61C4E-FAFE-45DE-9145-DB38199BDEC3

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8B3481DF-E273-5475-A417-BB3469539B9A

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Mesembrius morio (Bezzi, 1915)
status

 

Mesembrius morio (Bezzi, 1915) View in CoL Figs 36 View Figures 35, 36 , 74 View Figures 70–74 , 117 View Figures 113–118 , 138 View Figures 135–138

Helophilus (Mesembrius) morio Bezzi, 1915: 98.

Mesembrius morio - Smith and Vockeroth (1980): 504.

Differential diagnosis.

Mesembrius morio females are entirely black and cannot be confused with any other Mesembrius species. The male is unknown.

Examined material.

Helophilus morio Bezzi: Holotype, female, “Holo-//type” "Hel. (Mes.)//Type// Helophilus morio //Bezzi" "Neguelo,//Usambara,// German E. Africa //Purchd. From// H.Rolle. //1904-117." " Mesembrius // Mesembrius morio n.sp.//Type ♀ "; " NHMUK 013428952" [NHMUK].

Paratype: Tanzania • 1♀; Usambara Mountains , Neguelo; date unknown; H. Rolle leg.; NHMUK .

Other material

Democratic Republic of the Congo • 1♀; Eala ; 24 Aug 1935; J. Ghesquière leg.; KBIN . Malawi • 1♀; Mount Mulanje; 6 Nov 1913; S.A. Neave leg.; NHMUK . Tanzania • 2♀♀; Neguelo, Usambara Mountains ; date unknown; H. Rolle leg.; NHMUK . Uganda • 2♀♀; Entebbe ; 17 Jun 1972; H. Falke leg.; CNC .

Re-description female

(Fig. 36 View Figures 35, 36 ). Body length: 12.7-13.5 mm. Wing length: 11.6-12.5 mm.

Head (Fig. 74 View Figures 70–74 ). Eyes bare; dichoptic. Face black; black and white pilose; white pollinose. Frons black; black pilose; lower half white pollinose. Vertex black; black pilose; grey pollinose. Distance between lateral ocellus and eye margin approx. the width of ocellus. Occiput black; yellow and black pilose dorsally, yellow pilose more ventrally; grey pollinose. Frontal prominence shiny brown-black; black pilose. Antenna black; arista reddish-brown.

Thorax. Scutum and scutellum black; without vitta; short white and black pilose.

Legs. Dark reddish-brown to black; short black and white pilose.

Wing (Fig. 138 View Figures 135–138 ). Entire wing uniformly, very densely microtrichose; dark brown in anterior half.

Abdomen (Fig. 117 View Figures 113–118 ). Entirely black; short yellow-white and black pilose.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution.

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.

Comments.

Previously only known from the holo- and paratype. Curran (1927) considers M. morio to be a dark morphotype of M. cyanipennis . As the male of M. morio is unknown, we could not compare the male genitalia. However, since the differentiation between the two species with DNA barcodes (p -distance: 6.4%) is of the same magnitude as the differentiation between other closely related species (range p -distances: 4.3-14.7%; see Discussion and Fig. 229 View Figure 229 ), we consider M. morio and M. cyanipennis as two different morphospecies.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Syrphidae

Genus

Mesembrius

Loc

Mesembrius morio (Bezzi, 1915)

Jordaens, Kurt, Goergen, Georg, Skevington, Jeffrey H., Kelso, Scott & Meyer, Marc De 2021
2021
Loc

Helophilus (Mesembrius) morio

Bezzi 1915
1915