Eudorylas auctus Kehlmaier, 2005

Motamedinia, Behnam, Skevington, Jeffrey Hunter & Kelso, Scott, 2020, Revision of Eudorylas Aczel, 1940 (Diptera, Pipunculidae) in the Middle East, with the description of four new species, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 53609-53609 : 53609

Eudorylas auctus Kehlmaier, 2005

Diagnosis

This species can be recognised by the squared base of the surstyli, with inner finger-like projection in dorsal view; gonopods equal, inner side of basal half of hypandrium swollen in ventral view; phallus trifid and coiled twice; phallic guide straight in lateral view (for illustrations, see Kehlmaier 2005a: Figure 47a, l).

Distribution

England, Germany, Greece, Iran (Fig. 1 ), Italy, Kyrgyz Republic, Spain, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan ( Kehlmaier 2005a, Kazerani et al. 2017, Skevington 2020).

Notes

Our single DNA barcode of Eudorylas auctus from Germany (JSS15405) overlaps with barcodes of E. obscurus from France (CNC464954) and E. longifrons from Iran (GB: LT671752). The genitalia of these species are different, so this is likely just a case of incomplete lineage sorting due to ancestral hybridisation or the fact that these are young species whose barcodes have not yet diverged, as seen in many other taxa (e.g. Skevington 2005, Skevington et al. 2007, Young et al. 2016). It does raise the possibility that these three taxa are part of a single variable species with polymorphic genitalia. Future work should explore population genetics within this cluster of species, perhaps using the rapidly evolving marker, ITS2.

Figures

Figure 1. Eudorylas species distribution in the Middle East.