Merodon flavocerus Radenkovic, Velickovic, Ssymank, Vidakovic, Djan, Ståhls, Veselic & Vujic, 2018

Merodon flavocerus (Diptera: Syrphidae: Eristalinae: Merodontini: Merodon: desturianus lineage: melanocerus group: melanocerus subgroup)

A member of the melanocerus subgroup which is only known from South Africa.
All species in this subgroup have a dense, strong yellow or red brush of pile on the metatrochanter, on the head, the oral margin is notched and produced forward.

Merodon flavocerus (detailled description in Radenković et al 2018, page 18):

• antennae light broewn, basoflagellomere, orange-brown, elongated 1.5–2.0 times as long as wide;
• in males, eyes dichoptic (almost touching)
• vertical triangle brown-red
• scutum and scutellum covered with long dense erect yellow pile; cuticle black with bronze lustre, postpronotum and posterior rim of scutellum pale yellow
• metafemur straight, not curved
• wings hyaline, with brown veins and dense, light brown microtrichia (wings look brown)
• katepisternum shiny
• abdomen: tergites 3–4 with reddish transversal stripes; orange-yellow lateral spots on tergite 2

This species is recorded from the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Photo of male head in Vujic et al 2018
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Head-female-AMerodon-flavocerusBMerodon-murorum-Scale-bar-1mm_fig19_326210806

Illustration of head and antennae in Radenković et al 2018
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200805.g007

Illustration of metafemur in Radenković et al 2018
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200805.g012

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134963978

References:

Radenković S, Veličković N, Ssymank A, Obreht Vidaković D, Djan M, Ståhls G, et al. 2018. Close relatives of Mediterranean endemo-relict hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in South Africa: Morphological and molecular evidence in the Merodon melanocerus subgroup. PLoS ONE 13(7):
e0200805. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200805

Vujić A, Radenković S, Likov L. 2018. Revision of the Palaearctic species of the Merodon desuturinus group (Diptera, Syrphidae). ZooKeys 771: 105–138. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.771.20481

Vujić A, Radenković S, Likov L, Veselić S. 2021. Taxonomic complexity in the genus Merodon Meigen, 1803 (Diptera, Syrphidae). ZooKeys 1031: 85–124. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1031.62125

Posted on October 14, 2024 11:14 AM by traianbertau