Sphecomyia vespiformis (Gorski, 1852)

M. Moran, Kevin & H. Skevington, Jeffrey, 2019, Revision of world Sphecomyia Latreille (Diptera, Syrphidae), ZooKeys 836, pp. 15-79 : 45-46

Sphecomyia vespiformis (Gorski, 1852) Figs 2M, 4C, 16D, 17D, 18D, 19B, 21E, 22F, 24

Tyzenhauzia vespiformis Gorski 1852: 170. Type locality. Vilinius, Lithuania. [ZMHU]

Sphecomyia vespiformis , Wahlberg 1854: 155 - Zetterstedt 1855: 4646; 1859: 5075; Schiner 1857: 445, 1862: 367, 1864: 112; Bonsdorff 1861: 213; Siebke 1877: 50; Curran 1932: 8; Bańkowska 1963: 67; Stone et al. 1965: 612; Weisman 1965: 268, 1966a: 51, 1966b: 192; Violovitsh 1983: 146; Peck 1988: 213; Soszyński 1991: 92, 2004: 307; Bartsch et al. 1998: 53; Nielsen 1999: 10,91; Söderman 1999: 33; Haarto and Kerppola 2007: 488, 2014: 247; Karpa 2008: 17; Bartsch et al. 2009: 379; Speight 2014: 246; Pettersson and Fors 2014: 6; Mutin et al. 2016: 9; Żóralski et al. 2016: 127, 2017: 76.

Sphecomyia vittata of authors, not Wiedemann 1830 - Osten Sacken 1877: 341; Roder 1879: 96; Portschinsky 1887: 8; Aldrich 1905: 405; Kertész 1910: 349; Shannon 1925: 43; Stackelberg 1958: 244; Séguy 1961: 156; Cole and Schlinger 1969: 331; Peck 1988: 213. Misidentification.

Diagnosis.

It can be confused with S. vittata but can be distinguished by the following characters: anepimeron not pruinose; anterior half of scutellum pruinose; sternite 2 completely black or with faint, interrupted, pruinose band anteriorly.

Redescription.

Male. Body length: 14.8-15.9 mm. Wing length: 10.4-12.1 mm. Head. Face yellow pruinose with shiny, black, medial vitta extending from oral margin to base of antenna; frons enlarged antero-dorsally, longer than broad and as broad at vertex as at antenna, bare, with yellow pruinosity along posterior rim; vertex triangular, longer than broad, shiny, with ocellar triangle yellow pilose; postocular border yellow pruinose; postocular and occipital pile yellow; male narrowly dichoptic; antenna black, black pilose, with length of segments roughly in a 4:4:1 ratio.

Thorax. Matte black; postpronotum, scutum, scutellum, postalar callus, proepimeron, posterior anepisternum yellow pilose; posterior katepisternum yellow pilose with broadly separated patches; anterior anepimeron yellow pilose; metasternum yellow pilose; postpronotum, anterior half of scutellum, broad posterior margin of anepisternum and dorso-posterior corner of katepisternum yellow pruinose; anepimeron shiny; scutum with two pairs of pruinose vittae, anterior pair long running from anterior edge of scutum to transverse suture, posterior pair shorter and terminating before posterior edge; ventral calypter with long yellow pile.

Legs. Legs yellow to reddish-yellow. Legs yellow pilose.

Wing. Hyaline; microtrichia absent from following areas: cell bc; broad basal portion of cell br (before origin of M) and about basal two-fifths of narrower portion of this cell (caudad of spurious vein only); cell bm anteromedially; broad anterior margin of cell cua.

Abdomen. Tergites and sternites shiny to sub-shiny, black with yellow pruinose markings as follows: tergite 1 pruinose along posterior margin; tergite 2 with broad, interrupted, narrowing medial band which does not meet a narrow, uninterrupted posterior band in the posterolateral corners of tergite; tergite 3 with similar band, but thinner and more narrowly interrupted; pattern on tergite 4 same as tergite 3 except medial band very narrowly or incompletely interrupted; sternite 1 shiny; sternite 2 completely black or with faint, interrupted band anteriorly; sternite 3 and 4 with uninterrupted, or narrowly interrupted band anteriorly; sternites 6 to 8 pruinose; pile of abdomen yellow.

Male genitalia. Surstylus elongated, about two and a half times as long as broad, apex cute, with abrupt curve, directed ventrally; pile on dorsal surface of surstylus, increasing in length posteriorly; minute spines on ventral surface and apical three-fourth of lateral inner and outer surface; basal fourth of the ventral surface of the surstylus produced into a lobe directed posteroventrally, with minute pubescence on ventral and lateral inner surface; cerci rounded, with invagination on posterior border; aedeagus as in Fig. 2M.

Female.

Similar to male except normal sexual dimorphism.

Biology.

Often found in June or July along rivers and streams in Betula L./ Pinus L. forest. Copulation has been observed on the trunk of Populus tremula L., Crataegus maximowiczii C.K.Schneid., Hesperis matronalis L., Pimpinella saxifraga L., Rubus idaeus L., Sorbus aucuparia L., and Spiraea salicifolia L. Immature stages are not described but are probably associated with sap-runs or lesions in the trunk of Populus tremula ( Speight 2014).

Distribution.

Southern Norway to northern Sweden, Finland and Russian Karelia, the Baltic States, Poland, and throughout Siberia, reaching the Pacific coast (Fig. 24).