Ceriana media van Steenis & Ricarte

Steenis, Jeroen Van, Ricarte, Antonio, Vujić, Ante, Birtele, Daniele & Speight, Martin C. D., 2016, Revision of the West-Palaearctic species of the tribe Cerioidini (Diptera, Syrphidae), Zootaxa 4196 (2), pp. 151-209 : 175-177

Ceriana media van Steenis & Ricarte sp. n.

Figs 16 , 33, 34 , 42 , 68 , 87–89 , 100 , 166

Diagnosis. This new species can be separated from the similar C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n. by the characteristic shape of the fascia at the frontal prominence (compare Figs 38, 39, 41 and 45 ); the angle of eyes which is larger in C. media sp. n. (130–140º) than in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n. (110–125o); the basoflagellomere which is clearly shorter than the pedicel (only slightly shorter to somewhat longer in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); the scutellum which is yellow (with extensive black posterior margin in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); wing cells bm and br partly bare of microtrichia (entirely microtrichose in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); and other characters of the genitalia.

Description. MALE ( Figs 16 , 33 ). Body length: 10.9–11.8 mm; wing length: 8.7–9.1 mm. Head ( Fig. 42 ). Face strongly protruding antero-ventrally with clearly demarcated tubercle and concave below antennae. Head 1.9– 2.0 times wider than face just below the antennae; width of facial vitta 0.14–0.18 times the width of face; length of eye contiguity 1.2–1.3 times as long as length of frons; angle of eyes at eye contiguity 130–140o. Gena, mouth edge, hypostomal bridge, a narrow medial vitta and a characteristically shaped fascia at frontal prominence black. Vertical triangle and ocellar triangle black, dorsal surface of head capsule yellow. Frontal prominence 5.1–5.5 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 0.97–1.0: 1: 0.81–0.92. Antennae and frontal prominence brown-yellow to black coloured; arista white pilose. Thorax. Scutum black, postpronotum and notopleuron entirely yellow; with white pollinose maculae medially from the transverse suture and two vague white-grey vittae antero-medially. Pleuron black with two yellow maculae, one each on posterior 1/2–3/5 of posterior anepisternum and on dorsal 1/4–1/3 of katepisternum. Metasternum with long pile and a low, rounded elevation medially on antero-ventral part. Scutellum entirely yellow. Legs. Coxae black; trochanter yellow; apical 1/2–3/4 of femora black; apico-medial 1/4–1/3 of tibiae black; pro- and mesotarsus with tarsomeres 3–5 dark-brown to black; metatarsus entirely brown to black. Clear patch of black setulae present on antero-basal part of pro- and mesofemur and on medial part of metatrochanter. Mesotrochanter straight dorsally; mesofemur with a short, narrow, rugged and flattened area antero-basally; metatrochanter ( Fig. 68 ) with rather deep sulcus and rather broad rim laterally; metatibia with small triangular appendix on apico-ventral part; metafemur elongate and slightly curved ( Fig. 100 ). Wing. Hyaline except for anterior 1/2, along spurious vein and along cross-vein r-m and CuA2 black infuscate. Loop in vein R4+5 hyaline; deep with long appendix halfway down into cell r4+5. Cross-vein r-m slightly curved. Membrane covered in microtrichia, except along posterior margin on cell bm, cell br bare posterior to vena spuria and on alula, which is narrowly bare along the posterior margin and medially with very scattered microtrichia. The bare parts have sometimes very scattered microtrichia. Alula broad, 2.3–2.5 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Black and yellow coloured. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV is as 1: 1.8–1.9: 1.8–1.9: 2.0–2.2. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.7–3.8, 1: 3.9–4.7 and 1: 2.4–3.0. Tergite II about as wide as long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 0.87: 1.0. Tergite I with triangular yellow maculae antero-laterally, broadly separated medially. Fasciae on tergite II and III straight throughout; on tergite IV strongly narrowing laterally. Tergite IV strongly emarginated. Tergite I with low medial elevation; tergites III and IV medially without longitudinal elevation and with vague grey-white pollinosity medio-laterally. Sternites I–III with posterior yellow fascia. Genitalia. Epandrium with narrow ventral rim ( Figs 87, 88 ); in dorsal view, cerci triangular shaped, apex rounded ( Fig. 88 ), pile about half as long as width of cerci; surstylus bi-lobed, dorsal lobe elongate baso-medially narrowed with circular apex, ventral lobe very narrowly circular with membranous basal part ( Fig. 87 ); surstylar apodeme semicircular shaped; hypandrium ( Figs 87, 89 ) with broad base and narrower apex; hypandrium with small membranous area apico-ventrally; with very long and elongated lingula, medio-ventrally a slightly sclerotized irregularly shaped flange, medio-dorsally a pointed projection, apico-laterally with two very long threadlike appendages; superior lobe large triangular shaped, articulating with hypandrium and with dorsal ctenidion consisting of about 10 long and broad spines; aedeagus with baso-ventral elongated and pointed projection, medial projection long threadlike, dorsal projection broadly elongate with a weakly sclerotized apico-ventral flange. FEMALE ( Fig. 34 ). Body length: approx 11.2 mm (head missing); wing length: 10.6 mm. Similar to male, except for normal sexual dimorphism and the following characters. Thorax. Scutellum with small postero-medial black macula. Legs. Metatrochanter without black spicules. Wing. Loop in vein R4+5 darkened. Alula microtrichose, on posterior half very scattered; broad, 2.3 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV: V is as 1: 1.9: 2.3: 1.9:0.67. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.6, 1: 5.2 and 1: 4.0. Tergite II wider than long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 1.0: 1.1.

Type material. HOLOTYPE Ƌ; Afghanistan: " Afghanistan / 17.7.[19]53 / [leg.] Klapperich ", " R. Dahl coll. / NHM (E) 1997-240", " Holotype Ƌ / Ceriana media / van Steenis & Ricarte 2016" [red label] ( NHM) . PARATYPES, 1 Ƌ, 1 ♀, Afghanistan: " Afghanistan / 27.7.[19]52 / [leg.] Klapperich ", " R. Dahl coll. / NHM (E) 1997-240" (1 Ƌ JSA) ; Iran: “Тавризъ Персия / 5 V [19]14 / [leg.] Андриевский” (1 ♀ ZIN) .

Distribution. ( Fig. 166 ). Afghanistan and Iran.

Etymology. The epithet ‘ media ’ means intermediate in Latin and refers to the fact that this species has an intermediate morphology between C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.

Biology. Adults fly from mid April to late July.

Discussion. The possible synonyms of C. conopsoides are discussed under that species. The only species not studied and with an imprecise description is Musca adunata . The type locality of this species (Paris, France) is far beyond the distributional range of C. media and C. skevingtoni . The possible synonym of M. adunata with either C. media or C. skevingtoni is herewith rejected.

Several East-Palaearctic Ceriana species such as C. anceps ( Séguy, 1948) , C. japonica ( Shiraki, 1968) and C.

nigerrima Violovitsh, 1974 resemble, in overall appearance, C. media sp. n. and C. skevingtoni sp. n., but they can be distinguished from these two by an entirely black scutellum. The Chinese species Ceriana grahami ( Shannon, 1925) , also similar to C. media sp. n. and C. skevingtoni sp. n., can be separated from these two by the following unique combination of characters: dorsal surface of head capsule with two yellow maculae that are posterolateral to the ocellar triangle (yellow colour more extended), scutum only with postpronotum and notopleuron yellow, pleuron black except for two yellow maculae and scutellum with a narrow medial yellow fascia.

Figures

FIGURES 13 – 18. Ceriana adults, overall appearance, dorsal view. 13 Ceriana conopsoides male, Greece 14 Ceriana conopsoides male, Estonia 15 Ceriana conopsoides female, Russia 16 Ceriana media sp. n. male, paratype, Afghanistan 17 Ceriana skevingtoni sp. n. male, paratype, Azerbaijan 18 Ceriana skevingtoni sp. n. female, paratype, Azerbaijan. Scale line = 5 mm.

FIGURES 31 – 36. Ceriana adults, overall appearance, lateral view. 31 Ceriana conopsoides male, Greece 32 Ceriana conopsoides female, Russia 33 Ceriana media sp. n. male, paratype, Afghanistan 34 Ceriana media sp. n. female, paratype, Iran 35 Ceriana skevingtoni sp. n. male, paratype, Azerbaijan 36 Ceriana skevingtoni sp. n. female, paratype, Azerbaijan Talish. Scale line = 5 mm.

FIGURES 37 – 48. Head, frontal view. 37 Ceriana brunettii male, Tajikistan 38 Ceriana caesarea male, Turkmenistan 39 Ceriana conopsoides male, Greece 40 Ceriana conopsoides female, Russia 41 Ceriana glaebosa male paratype 42 Ceriana media male paratype, Afghanistan 43 Ceriana naja male, Tajikistan 44 Ceriana sartorum male, Turkmenistan 45 Ceriana sartorum female, Tajikistan 46 Ceriana skevingtoni male paratype, Azerbaijan Talish 47 Ceriana vespiformis male, Greece 48 Ceriana vespiformis female, Rhodos. Scale line = 2 mm.

FIGURES 64 – 70. Metatrochanter of Ceriana species, ventral view. 64 Ceriana brunettii, male, Azerbaijan. 65 Ceriana caesarea male, Turkmenistan 66 Ceriana conopsoides male, Estonia 67 Ceriana glaebosa paratype, male 68 Ceriana media paratype, male 69 Ceriana naja male, Tajikistan 70 Ceriana sartorum male, Kyrgyzstan. Scale line = 0.5 mm (a: 65; b: 67; c: 64, 66, 68 – 70).

FIGURES 87 – 89. Male genitalia of Ceriana media sp. n., paratype 87 Epandrium and hypandrium, lateral view 88 Epandrium, dorsal view 89 Hypandrium, ventral view. Scale line = 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 98 – 101. Metafemur of Ceriana species 98 Ceriana conopsoides male, Russia 99 Ceriana conopsoides female, Sweden 100 Ceriana media sp. n., holotype 101 Ceriana skevingtoni sp. n. paratype, male. Scale line = 1 mm.

FIGURES 166 – 168. Distribution maps of the West-Palaearctic Cerioidini. 166 Ceriana brunettii (yellow circle), Ceriana caesarea (blue square) and Ceriana media (red triangle) 167 Ceriana naja (blue circle), Ceriana sartorum (yellow triangle) and Ceriana skevingtoni (red square) 168 Ceriana conopsoides (purple circle).