Eumerus claripennis Coe, 1957

Ricarte, Antonio, Nedeljković, Zorica, Rotheray, Graham E., Lyszkowski, Richard M., Hancock, Geoffrey, Watt, Kenneth, Hewitt, Stephen M., Horsfield, David & Wilkinson, Geoffrey, 2012, Syrphidae (Diptera) from the Greek island of Lesvos, with description of two new species, Zootaxa 3175, pp. 1-23 : 8-9

Eumerus claripennis Coe, 1957

Figs. 4–7

New to Greece

Material examined. Greece, Lesvos: 2 Ƥ and 1 3 (detached head but attached with a micro-pin), Lardia Gorge, 39º14´N 26º1´E, 5.vi.2010, leg. S.M. Hewitt; 2 3 (one of them with dissected genitalia), Potamia River, 28.v– 9.vi.2010, leg.: E.G. Hancock [HM]; 1 3, Potamia, Anemotia, roadside, near bridge site, on false fennel (yellow umbellifer), 3.vi.2010, leg. Kenn Watt [KW].

Description. Female. L = 7.3mm, WL = 4.8mm. Head. Eye bare; ocellar triangle equilateral; diameter of anterior ocellus smaller than diameter of a posterior ocellus; vertex with an elongate silver pollinose spot at the eye margin, just posterior to the ocellar triangle; occiput with white hairs, silver pollinose except on the upper section of the posterior eye margin (postero-dorsal eye margin free of pollinosity); frons with a wide punctured band of silver pollinosity; in profile, the length of the occiput dorsally same as the distance between the two posterior ocelli; in profile, top of head between posterior ocelli and the posterior edge of the head almost flat; hairs on dorsal part of the occiput and vertex whitish and roughly uniform in length; ocellar triangle and surrounding area with black hairs; frontal hairs white and shorter than those on the vertex; antenna extensively red, although scape, pedicel, basoflagellomere dorsally and arista apically sometimes darkened; pedicel with hairs conspicuously longer on the ventral side than those on dorsal side; basoflagellomere elongate (bf = 2.2); face silver pollinose, with white hairs. Thorax. Scutum with two medial silver pollinose vittae extending from the front of the thorax to the transverse sutures, connected to narrower transverse fasciae which run outwards along the transverse sutures to a point just before the notopleuron; scutum, pleuron and scutellum black with metallic green reflections and covered with silver white hairs; hairs on posterior area of posterior anepisternum and dorsal area of katepisternum conspicuously longer than those on scutum and scutellum; posterior margin of scutellum serrate and bearing slightly longer hairs than those on the remainder of the scutellum; coxa black, femur extensively black; apical half of pro- and mesotibia, and apical third of metatibia blackish; pro- and mesotarsi red; metabasitarsus blackish dorsally; wing hyaline, with areas bare of microtrichia in the cells R, BM and CuP; calypter whitish, halter yellowish. Abdomen. Terga greenish-black, only red under the pollinose fasciae of tergum II and reddish black under the pollinose fasciae of terga III and IV; posterior two thirds of each of the terga II–IV with two diagonal silver pruinose fasciae in a very similar pattern than those on the abdomen of the male ( Fig. 5 ); sterna II–IV medially with white backwardly-directed adpressed hairs.

Notes. The collected specimens represent the first record of this species since the original description. The male holotype was examined and its genitalia illustrated ( Figs. 6–7 ). These drawings complete the series of genitalia drawings provided in Vujiċ and Šimiċ (1995–1998), who could not access the only known specimen of E. claripennis , the holotype. The most significant characters of the male of this species are the elongate basoflagellomere (bf = 1.7–1.8) ( Fig. 4 ), the reddish fasciae on the posterior margin of tegum IV ( Fig. 5 ) and, in the genitalia, the shape of the surstylar lobes as well as the areas of dense pilosity/setosity on the inner surface of the surstyli ( Fig. 7 ). The basoflagellomere is blackish with a red baso-ventral area of variable size.

The two females and the male collected in Lardia Gorge are believed to be conspecific because they share the conspicuously-elongated basoflagellomere and, apart from the red fasciae on tergum IV, the abdominal patterns of colour/shininess and pollinosity. As the collected females have a punctured fasciae of pollinosity on the frons, we compared them with the holotype of Eumerus punctifrons Loew. Although females of these two species share the punctured fasciae of pollinosity on the frons, in E. punctifrons the pollinosity extends over the whole frons, vertex and part of the occiput dorsally, unlike females of E. claripennis . Additionally the basoflagellomere of E. punctifrons is oval and proportionally shorter than that in E. claripennis ; the pattern of pollinosity on the scutum is different from that in E. claripennis , the metafemur and metatibia are more swollen than those in E. claripennis , and the antero-lateral corners of tergum IV have pollinosity, that is absent in E. claripennis .

Data on the examined holotypes. Holotype of Eumerus claripennis : Yugoslavia, Macedonia: 1 3, Lake Ochrid, hill scrub, c 500 ft above lake, 4–7.vi.1955, R.L. Coe, B.M. 1955–460; identified as Eumerus claripennis MS n sp Coe 3, det. R.L. Coe, 1956 (abdomen and the two posterior legs are detached and pasted on a label; the genitalia is dissected and epandrium and hypandrium separated) [NHM]. Holotype of Eumerus punctifrons : Syria, Rinderm (faint hand writing) // Coll. H. Loew // Typus // Eumerus punctifrons M (on the other side of the label: Eumerus obliquus Wied. ) // Zool. Mus. Berlin [ZMHU].

The larva of this species is unknown.

Figures

FIGURES 4 – 7. Eumerus claripennis Coe, 1957, male holotype. 4: left antenna, inner surface, scale = 0.3 mm; 5: abdomen, dorsal view, scale = 1.4 mm; 6 – 7: genitalia, lateral view, scale = 0.5 mm. 6: hypandrium; 7: epandrium. Legend: rf, reddish fascia.