Ceriana caesarea Stackelberg 1928
Creators: name: Steenis, Jeroen Van
name: Ricarte, Antonio
name: Vujić, Ante
name: Birtele, Daniele
name: Speight, Martin C. D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Ceriana
Ceriana caesarea

description: Ceriana caesarea (Stackelberg, 1928)
Figs 3, 4, 21, 22, 38, 54, 59–63, 65, 83, 90, 166
Cerioides caesarea Stackelberg, 1928: 1. Type locality: Turkmenistan [HT ♂, ZIN]. Cerioides caesarea: Sack (1932).
Ceriana caesarea: Violovitsh (1974) comb. nov., Krivosheina (2001).
Redescription. MALE (Figs 3, 21). Body length: 12.0– 13.2 mm; wing length: 9.0– 9.2 mm. Head (Fig. 38). Face slightly protruding antero-ventrally with low and hardly visible tubercle and slightly concave below antennae. Head 2.5–2.6 times wider than face just below the antennae; eye contiguity 0.40–0.48 times as long as length of frons; angle of eyes at eye contiguity 115–125o. Face yellow with broad black vitta between eye margin and mouth edge. Frons yellow; vertical triangle and dorsal surface of head capsule yellow; ocellar triangle between ocelli black. Frontal prominence 2.8–3.2 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 1.1: 1: 0.92–1.0. Frontal prominence brown to dark-brown, basally yellow to black with dark-yellow baso-ventral part; antennae and arista black. Thorax. Scutum black with yellow maculae on postpronotum, notopleuron and posterior to notopleuron; a yellow vitta from postalar callus to suture at both sides, sometimes very short and narrow; two oval maculae medially anterior to scutellum. Pleuron black with three yellow maculae, one each on anepisternum, dorsal 1/3 of katepisternum and on the anteroventral corner of anterior anepimeron. Metasternum with short pile and a low, rounded elevation medially on antero-ventral part. Scutellum entirely yellow. Legs. Coxae black; trochanter brown-yellow; apico-ventral part of metafemur dark-brown to black; basal 3/4 to entire metatibia yellow. Clear patch of yellow setulae present on antero-basal part of profemur; metatrochanter without setulae (Fig. 65). Mesotrochanter dorsally with rounded appendix; mesofemur with small and narrow flattened area antero-basally (Fig. 83); metatrochanter a with high keel and a broad rim laterally (Fig. 54); metatibia without appendix on apicoventral part; metafemur (Fig. 90) elongate and slightly curved. Wing. Hyaline with dark-brown maculae, one at cross-vein r-m and apically at vein R2+3. Loop in vein R4+5 very deep without appendix. Cross-vein r-m slightly curved. Membrane entirely but sparsely covered in microtrichia except alula which is only narrowly microtrichose along the anterior margin. Alula broad, 2.5–2.6 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Black and yellow coloured. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV is as 1: 2.0–2.3: 1.5–1.8: 2.1–2.2. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.4–3.7, 1: 3.3–4.1 and 1: 2.6–2.8.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: 1.1.Tergite I predominantly yellow with large postero-medial black maculae; fascia on tergite II concave medially, straight towards lateral margin; fascia on tergite III straight throughout; fascia on tergite IV medially concave, straight only narrowed laterally and reaching lateral margin. Tergite IV slightly emarginated. Tergite I with low medial elevation; tergites III and IV medially without longitudinal elevation. Tergite III and IV with grey pollinosity as in Fig. 3. Sternites I–III with yellow posterior fascia. Genitalia. Epandrium with broad ventral rim (Figs 59, 61); in dorsal view, cerci broadly sickle shaped, with pile about as long as width of cerci (Fig. 61); surstylus bi-lobed, dorsal lobe short broadly elongate medially narrowed, ventral lobe broadly circular with membranous basal part (Fig. 59); surstylar apodeme separated in two triangular shaped sclerotized parts (Fig. 62); hypandrium with broad base and narrower apex; with short, broad and rounded lingula (Figs 59, 63); in lateral view, superior lobe boxingglove shaped, articulating with hypandrium (Fig. 59); aedeagus with elongated and pointed projection basoventrally, with a narrowly elongate projection with pointed apex, originating from medial part, ventro-medially, apex bird of prey-head shaped (Fig. 60). FEMALE (Figs 4, 22). Body length: 14.1–15.2 mm; wing length: 10.5– 10.9 mm. Similar to male, except for normal sexual dimorphism and the following characters. Head. Head 2.1–2.2 times wider than face just below the antennae. Frontal prominence 2.6–3.2 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 1.1–1.2: 1: 1.0–1.1. Face with very narrow medial brown vittae from below frontal prominence towards tubercle. Frons and dorsal surface of head capsule entirely yellow; ocellar triangle and vertex black; small yellow triangular macula anterior of ocellar triangle. Legs. Metatrochanter and femora without black spicules. Wing. With sub anterior black fascia on cells sc, r1 and anterior half of r2+3. Alula broad, 2.5 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV: V is as 1: 2.0–2.1: 1.5–1.7: 1.8–2.0: 0.9–1.1. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 2.9–3.1, 1: 2.5–3.1 and 1: 1:2.0–2.5. Tergite II wider than long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 1.1–1.2: 1.3–1.4.
Variation. Krivosheina (2001) discussed the intraspecific variability of C. caesarea and, after examination of the male genitalia of specimens with different colouration concluded that they belonged to the same taxon. All the specimens examined in the present study belong to the yellow phenotype.
Material examined. 12 Ƌ, 5 ♀ (NHM, ISEA, NBC, ZIN).
Distribution (Fig. 166). Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Biology. The immature stages of this species are found under the bark and in water-filled holes of Populus diversifolia; the puparium is described (Krivosheina 2001). One female was found in riparian forests and woodlands. Adults fly from early April to late June. Adults have been observed visiting Tamarix flowers.
description: Published as part of 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), pp. 151-209 in Zootaxa 4196 (2) on pages 166-167, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4196.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/167924