Merodon moenium, Wiedemann, 1822

Prokhorov, A. V., Popov, G. V. & Zaika, M. I., 2018, New Records Of Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) From Ukraine. Ii. Brachyopini And Merodontini, Vestnik Zoologii 52 (2), pp. 125-136 : 131-132

Merodon moenium (Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822) ( FIgs 26–29 )

M a t e r i a l e x a m i n e d. Ukraine. Kyiv Region: Mali Dmytrovychi env., 50.22 N 30.52 E, grassy ravine among agricultural FIelds and mixed forest, 5.07.2017, 1 Ơ, 13.07.2017, 3 Ơ (A. Prokhorov) .

D i s t r i b u t i o n. Speight (2017) notes that the “occurrence of this taxon in various parts of Europe still requires conFIrmation, due to confusion with M. avidus and M. ibericus ”. Probably M. moenium is distributed from southern Sweden southwards to the Mediterranean and Northern Africa; from France through most of Central and Southern Europe to Turkey and European parts of Russia (ibid.), Ukraine (first record).

Diagnosis. Very similar to M. avidus ( FIg. 30–33 ), except tergite 2 shiny, the dust (whitish microtrichose) spots on the second tergite are lacking (in M. avidu s, the dust spots on the tergite 2 are present, as on FIg. 32 ); there are narrow microtrichose bands on tergites 3 and 4 (in M. avidus , these bands are wider, as on FIg. 30 ); tergite 3 is black without reddish lateral spots ( FIg. 28 ) (in the female it is anterolaterally orange-red, but with a black posterior margin, in contrast with M. avidus where the posterior margin of tergites 2–4 in both sexes are paler, as on FIg. 32 ); the tibiae are always partly dark ( FIg. 29 ) (in M. avidus , the hind tibia pale, as on FIg. 33 ) and the body hairs longer, especially on the apical tergites ( FIg. 28 ) ( Milankov et al., 2001, 2009; Marcos-García et al., 2007; Popović et al., 2015; Ačanski et al., 2016; Speight, 2017). No differences in male genitalia characters between these two taxa are found. Merodon ibericus Vujić, 2015 has similar characteristics with M. moenium , but it inhabits only the Iberian Peninsula and cluster analysis of DNA barcoding sequences clearly separated that species ( Popović et al., 2015).

Notes. In the Palaearctic Catalogue of Syrphidae ( Peck, 1988) the name M. moenium is considered a synonym of M. spinipes (Fabricius, 1794) . Later it became clear that in turn, M. spinipes is a juniour synonym of M. avidus (Rossi, 1790) ( Hurkmans, 1993) . During the molecular and morphological study of some M. avidus populations, Milankov et al. (2001, 2004, 2009) found cryptic species M. avidus A and M. avidus B among M. avidus complex. Marcos-García et al. (2007) also believe that M. avidus group of closely related species contains, in particular, two cryptic taxa namely “Mediterranean” M. avidus A and “mountainous” M. avidus B species (now avidus and moenium , correspondingly). In the study with the aim to delimitate cryptic taxa within the M. avidus complex, Popović et al. (2014) distinguished very close M. avidus and M. moenium “аccording to the diagnostic morphological characters, as well as to the season of their adult activity” (ibid.), the analysis of samples revealed also “the clear presence of two separate taxa” with integrative usage of allozyme (in this case it was more informative compared to the mtDNA marker) and morphological markers (ibid.). All the available genetic and ecological data confirmed a hypothesis that the M. avidus species complex consists of several sibling species and indicated their recent speciation ( Popović et al., 2015). Designation of the neotypes of M. avidus , M. spinipes and the lectotype of M. moenium was an important step for solving this problem ( Popović et al., 2015). Thus, the M. avidus complex includes four sibling species, namely M. avidus , M. moenium , M. ibericus and M. megavidus Vujić & Radenković, 2016 ( Ačanski et al., 2016). Among them, two species are found in Ukraine, these are M. avidus ( Hurkmans, 1993; Popov, 2003, 2010; Popović et al., 2015) and M. moenium (this study). The species of this complex have proven difficult to distinguish using traditional morphological characters ( Ačanski et al., 2016; etc.), and in Ukraine, we were faced with these difficulties in the Crimean Peninsula where the species of M. avidus / moenium complex occur sympatrically ( Popov, 2003). While we can not reliably indicate M. moenium for Crimea without additional study. At the same time in the Kyiv Region we found a morphologically “standard” population of M. moenium , which allowed us to record this species for Ukrainian fauna for the first time.

Figures

Figs 26–33. Males of Merodon moenium (FIgs 26–29) and M. avidus (from Crimea, Karadag) (FIgs 30–33): 26, 30 — habitus, dorsal view; 27, 31 — head, anterolateral view; 28, 32 — abdomen, dorsolateral view (arrow shows the dust on tergite 2 and the red patterns on tergites 3–4); 29, 33 — hind leg, lateral view.