Ceriana conopsoides Linnaeus 1758
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 conopsoides

description: Ceriana conopsoides (Linnaeus, 1758)
Figs 13–15, 31, 32, 39, 40, 49, 53, 66, 71–75, 84, 98, 99, 168
Musca conopsoides Linnaeus, 1758: 590. Type locality: Europe [LT ♂, LSL].
Ceria clavicornis Fabricius, 1794: 277. Type locality: Kiliae [Kiel, Germany] and Barbaria [North Africa] Dom. Desfontaines [ST ♂, ♀, ZMUC], types probably lost.
Musca adunata Geoffroy, 1785: 488. Type locality: France, Paris [ST ♂?, MNHN or MHNA, coll Geoffroy!], type(s) probably lost.
Musca univalvis Turton, 1801: 632. nom. nov. Ceria clavicornis Fabricius, 1794, unjustified presumed occupation.
Cerioides uralensis Becker, 1921: 89. Type locality: Russia, Ural [HT ♀, ZMHB].
Cerioides caucasicus Paramonov, 1927: 19. Type locality: Yerevan, Armenia; Ordubad, Azerbaijan [LT ♂, PLT ♀, SIZK]. syn. nov.
Cerioides caucasica: Sack (1932).
Syrphus conopseus, misspelling: Fabricius (1794) comb. nov.
Cerioides conopoides, misspelling: Bezzi & Stein (1907) comb. nov., Becker (1921), Şuster (1959), Gil Collado (1930), Drensky (1934), Marcuzzi (1941), van Doesburg (1953), Bańkowska (1963), Glumac (1972).
Tenthredomyia conopoides, misspelling: Shannon (1925) comb. nov.
Ceriana conopoides, misspelling: Sack (1932) comb. nov., Séguy (1961), Stackelberg (1964).
Cerioides conopseus, misspelling: Goeldlin de Tiefenau (1974).
Ceria conopsoides: Latreille (1809) comb. nov., Dufour (1847), Rondani (1857), Schiner (1862), Costa (1863), Riggio (1885), Minà Palumbo (1887), Bezzi (1891, 1894, 1900), Bezzi & De Stefani-Perez (1897), Strobl (1893a, 1893b, 1900), Becker & Stein (1913), Tuccimei (1913).
Ceriana conopsoides: Becker et al. (1910), Stackelberg (1958), Zimina (1960), Brădescu (1972a, 1986, 1989, 1991), Thompson (1972), Hackman (1980), van der Goot (1981), Claussen (1985, 1989), Marcos-García (1985), Peck (1988), De Buck (1990), Verlinden (1991), Maibach et al. (1992), van Aartsen (1993, 1997), Kormann (1993), Kuznetzov (1993), Stuke (1993), Barkemeyer (1994), Dirickx (1994), Popov (1994, 1997, 2010), Speight (1994), Belcari et al. (1995), Hellrigl (1996), Sørensen & Gilbert (1996), Dussaix (1997), Malec et al. (1999), Rotheray & Gilbert (1999), van Steenis (1999, 2016), Ssymank et al. (1999), Stuke & Conrad (1999), Reemer & van Aartsen (2000), Bartsch (2001a), Marcos- Garciá & Louis (2001), Birtele et al. (2002), Ssymank (2002), Dunk et al. (2003), Dziock et al. (2004), van Veen (2004), Speight et al. (2005), Barkalov & Sorokina (2006), Dousti & Hayat (2006), Sommaggio & Corrazza (2006), Sorokina (2006), Haarto & Kerppola (2007), Reemer & Smit (2007), Sommaggio (2007), Standfuss & Claussen (2007), Whitmore et al. (2008), Mazánek (2009), Nedeljković et al. (2009), Reemer et al. (2009), Bartsch et al. (2009), Barták & Roháček (2011), van Eck (2011), Groot & Govedić (2011), Petanidou et al. (2011), Birtele & Hardersen (2012), Withers & Goy (2012), Radenković et al. (2013), Speight (2013), Sarıbıyık (2014), Speight & Kime (2014), Burgio et al. (2015).
Redescription. MALE (Figs 13, 14, 31). Body length: 9.2–13.8 mm; wing length: 6.9–10.6 mm. Head (Fig. 39). Face strongly protruding antero-ventrally with clearly demarcated tubercle and concave below antennae. Head 1.9– 2.1 times wider than face just below the antennae; facial vitta 0.19–0.53 times as wide as width of face; eye contiguity 0.71–0.83 times as long as length of frons; angle of eyes at eye contiguity 110–125o. On the mouth edge and hypostomal bridge a broad medial vitta and a broad fascia at frontal prominence black. Dorsal surface of head capsule behind ocellar triangle with broad to narrow yellow fascia (Figs 13, 14), medially divided by a black vitta in dark specimens. Frontal prominence 4.5–5.2 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 1.0–1.2: 1: 0.86–1.1. Antennae black and frontal prominence brown-yellow to black coloured; arista white pilose. Thorax. Scutum black with yellow maculae on postpronotum and notopleuron, notopleuron often black, and even postpronotum sometimes with very small and vague yellow macula. Pleuron black with two yellow maculae, one each on posterior 1/4–1/2 of posterior anepisternum and on dorsal 1/8–1/3 of katepisternum, in dark specimens only a small yellow macula on katepisternum. Basisternum (Fig. 53) rectangular and narrow, with straight dorsal margin and ventral margin with two large triangular extensions. Metasternum with long pile and high triangular elevation medially on antero-ventral part. Scutellum black with yellow sub-anterior fascia of different width. Legs. Coxae and trochanter black; pro- and mesofemur apically and basally narrowly yellow; basal 1/3 of metafemur yellow; apico-medial 1/3–1/2 of tibiae black; tarsi brown to black; in yellow specimens, legs predominantly yellow, only coxae and apico-postero-ventral part femora brown to black. Clear patch of black setulae present on antero-basal part of pro- and mesofemur and on medial part of metatrochanter. Procoxa broad, about as wide as long, with clear demarcated groove on entire length on dorsal part (Fig. 49); mesotrochanter straight dorsally; mesofemur with short, oval flattened area antero-basally (Fig. 84); metatrochanter with deep sulcus and broad rim laterally (Fig. 67); metatibia with a very small rounded appendix on apico-ventral part; metafemur elongate and clearly curved (Fig. 98). Wing. Hyaline except for anterior 1/2 and along spurious vein and along cross-vein r-m and CuA2. Loop in vein R4+5 deep with long appendix halfway down into cell r4+5, sometimes vein R4+5 nearly straight. Cross-vein r-m slightly curved. Membrane covered in microtrichia, except on alula which is narrowly microtrichose along the anterior margin. Alula relatively broad, 2.6–3.0 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Black and yellow coloured. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV is as 1: 1.6–2.0: 1.8–2.2: 2.1–2.6. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.1–6.1, 1: 4.3–7.0 and 1: 3.9–4.7. Tergite II wider than long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 1.1–1.3: 1.2–1.5. Tergite I with narrow to triangular yellow maculae along lateral and antero-lateral corner, broadly separated medially. Fascia on tergite II, III and IV with straight anterior margin, and slightly to clearly narrower at lateral margin. Tergite IV strongly emarginated and posterior fascia reaching lateral margin. Tergite I with low medial elevation; tergites III and IV medially without longitudinal elevation and without grey-white pollinosity. Sternites black, sometimes sternites I and II with narrow yellow posterior margin. Genitalia. Epandrium with narrow ventral rim (Figs 71, 73); in dorsal view, cerci triangular shaped, with an apico-medial sharp pointed projection, apex rounded, with pile of about 1/4 of the cercus width (Fig. 73); surstylus bi-lobed, dorsal lobe elongate baso-medially, narrowed with wide circular apex, ventral lobe very narrowly circular with membranous basal part (Fig. 71); surstylar apodeme semi-circular (Fig. 74); hypandrium (Figs 71, 75) with broad base and narrower apex; hypandrium with a small membranous area apico-ventrally, with a very long and narrow lingula (l) with medio-ventrally a hardly sclerotized irregular shaped flange (x), medio-dorsally a short and pointed projection (w), apico-laterally with two very long threadlike appendages (v) and dorso-basally with broad triangular tooth (y); superior lobe large, triangular shaped, with dorsal ctenidion consisting of about 15–20 short spines, articulating with hypandrium; aedeagus with baso-ventral projection elongate and pointed, ventro-medial projection long threadlike, apex of aedeagus broadly elongate with weak sclerotized apico-ventral flange (Fig 72). FEMALE (Figs 15, 32). Body length: 10.1–15.7 mm; wing length: 8.5–11.5 mm. Similar to male, except for normal sexual dimorphism and the following characters. Head (Fig. 40). Head 1.9–2.0 times wider than face just below the antennae; width of facial vitta 0.24–0.68 times as wide as width of face. Frontal prominence 4.4–5.0 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 1.2–1.3: 1: 1.0–1.2. Legs. Mesotrochanter at most with 1 or 2 black setulae medially. Metafemur elongate, slightly curved (Fig. 99). Wing. Alula relatively broad, 2.8–3.0 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV: V is as 1: 1.9–2.1: 2.5–2.6: 2.1–2.3: 0.9–1.1. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 4.8–6.6, 1: 6.8–7.2 and 1: 6.7–13. 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: 1.5–1.6. In south-eastern populations seldom with vague grey-white pollinosity medio-laterally on tergite IV.
Variation. Ceriana conopsoides is very variable in the extend of the yellow colour, most likely depending on environmental temperature. In the colder areas black specimens occur and in warm areas the specimens are more yellow. The black specimens (with the characters of the yellow specimens in parentheses) are characterized by a very broad medial facial vitta, occupying more than half of facial width (narrow black vitta occupying 1/5 of facial width); frons in female laterally with two very small often vague dark-yellow maculae (two large, nearly fused yellow maculae); dorsal surface of head capsule yellow, medially divided by a black vitta (entirely yellow); scutum with postpronotum narrowly yellow (postpronotum and notopleuron entirely yellow); pleuron with small yellow macula on katepisternum or entirely black (with two large yellow maculae on anepisternum and katepisternum); scutellum with very narrow medial yellow vitta (medial 2/3 yellow); tergites with narrow yellow posterior fascia, in male about 1/7–1/4 of tergite yellow and in female about 1/13–1/6 yellow (broader fascia, in male about 1/4–1/3 yellow and in female about 1/7–1/5 yellow).
Material examined. Lectotype and a paralectotype of Cerioides caucasicus: 1 Ƌ, "N311", " Armenia / Erivan / 24.VI. [19]24" [in Russian], " Cerioides / caucasicus / n. sp. Ƌ / Typus / Paramonov " [faded red label], " Lectotypus Cerioides / caucasicus Param., 1927 / G. V. Popov des. 2007" [red label]; 1 ♀, "N312", " Armenia / Ordubad / 7.VI. [19]24" [in Russian], " Cerioides / caucasicus / n. sp. ♀ / Typus / " [faded red label], "Paralectotypus Cerioides / caucasicus Param., 1927 / G. V. Popov des. 2007" [red label] both (SIZK). Additional material: 246 Ƌ, 249 ♀ and 1 larva (CDFA, CEUA, CNBF, DBV, FSUNS, GPA, IRSNB, ISEA, JSA, MNHN, MRL, MCD, MSNF, MTD, NBC, NMH, NHMT, NHRS, PCV, SIZK, WRL, WSB, ZIN, ZMTU).
Distribution (Fig. 168). Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, FRY Macedonia, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.
Biology. The preferred environments of C. conopsoides are forests of different types. Visiting flowers and trees in open places like forest edges, large forest tracks and meadows within the forest; also settling on sun lit tree trunk of Fagus sp. and Betula sp. or fast-flying at up to 3 m height (Speight, 2013). The Scandinavian and Siberian specimens reported in the present study were mainly collected in mix forests of Pinus / Picea / Populus / Betula. Apart from the flowers reported by Speight (2013), C. conopsoides has been found on the following species: Aegopodium podagraria, Anethum graveolens, Crataegus laevigata, Daucus carota, Euphorbia europeus, Euphorbia nicaeensis, Foeniculum vulgare, Galium sp., Heracleum sphondylium, Laserpitium latifolium, Pastinaca sativa, Rhamnus frangula, Salix sp., Thapsia garganica, Thapsia villosa. Adults fly from early April to mid October, with a peak from May to August. The larva is found in sap runs and rot holes of Populus (Speight 2013), Ulmus (Dufour 1847) and Quercus (Reemer et al. 2009, as Sphiximorpha subsessilis due to mislabelling). Research by Birtele & Hardersen (2012), who placed traps in closed forest and in the canopy at 15.5–21 m above ground level, indicates C. conopsoides does not frequent the interior of the forest, as it was exclusively caught high in the trees. The suggestion by Speight (2013) that this species is largely arboreal as an adult seems too simple; many adults studied by us have been collected in open areas within the forest and it is more likely that they disperse from one meadow to the other by flying over the canopy.
Discussion. The lectotype of Musca conopsoides was not studied. The present concept is based on Thompson et al. (1982) who designated a male lectotype.
The lectotype of Ceria clavicornis is presumably lost. The description is clearly based on a Ceriana species with short "proboscis", frontal prominence, elongate antennae and abdomen with yellow posterior fascia. "Thorax niger puncto utrinque antico, lineola transversa, quae utrinque puncto terminatur sub alis strigaque scutellari flavis", thorax black with anterior macula, transverse suture, a macula near the wing (dorsally?) and the scutellum with yellow fascia and "Pedes ..avi femoribus fusco annulatis" legs with femora dark annulate. This are all characters of C. conopsoides, not C. vespiformis. The type locality of Musca univalvis (= nom. nov. of C. clavicornis) is Germany and Italy which is within the distributional range of C. conopsoides and far beyond that of C. media and C. skevingtoni. The synonymy of Musca univalvis with C. conopsoides is herewith confirmed.
The lectotype of Musca adunata is presumably lost (it was not found in MNHN nor MHNL); The description of "La Mouche a antennes en y-grec", the fly with y-shaped antennae, is short; abdomen with yellow fascia, wing with black anterior margin and antennae inserted on a frontal prominence. Based on the presence of an frontal prominence it could be a species of Ceriana, and if so most likely C. conopsoides as the type locality of M. adunata lies within the range of C. conopsoides.
The lectotype of Conops vaginicornis is presumably lost. In his work, Schrank (1803) mentioned several dipteran families, i.e., “Borstenfliege” and “Lanzettfliege”, in which the first refers to Syrphidae and in the latter to Conopidae, under which C. vaginicornis was described. The description of C. vaginicornis does not correspond with any West-Palaearctic species of Ceriana. "Die stirne gelb mit einem schwarzen Kreuze"; no species has a black cross on the frons. "Die Fühlhörner schwarz, sie stecken mit ihrem unteren Drittel in einer gemeinschaftlichen Scheide"; The frontal prominence is 1/3 of the length of the antennae, while in Ceriana it is about half the length. The scutellum with yellow medial vitta, which is similar to C. conopsoides but not to C. vespiformis, so could even be a conopid. "Hinterleib am Grunde eine gelbe Queerlinie, und beyderseits ein grosser blasiger gelber Punkt"; tergite I with anterior yellow fascia and at both sides a large blood-yellow round macula. This abdominal pattern is not present in any Ceriana studied here. "Füsse gelb", legs yellow which is not the case in C. conopsoides. The figure by Schäffer in Schrank (1803) of C. vaginicornis does not show a Ceriana specimen, however, it does not seem in accordance with its description. It is hypothesised here that the figure resembles a Hymenoptera species rather than a Diptera, and it is clearly not a conopid (J-H Stuke, pers. comm.). The synonymy of C. vaginicornis with C. conopsoides is herewith disclaimed and C. vaginicornis considered as a nomen dubium.
The holotype female of Cerioides uralensis was not studied. The description is clearly based on a very dark specimen of C. conopsoides. The synonym of C. uralensis with C. conopsoides is herewith confirmed.
The type material of C. caucasica consists of 3 Ƌ and 5 ♀ of which only the lectotype male and one paralectotype female has been studied, however the similarity with C. conopsoides is undisputed as Paramonov (1927) described yellow specimens of C. conopsoides: "Die Occipitalauftreibung hinter dem Ocellenhöcker ist beim Männchen wie in der Quer-, so auch in der Längsrichtung beinahe doppelt soviel von gelber Farbe eingenommen wie bei C. conopoides, wobei die gelbe Farbe hinten unmittelbar bis zu den Ocellen reicht (bei C. conopoides ist sie von den Ocellen immer durch einen schwarzen Streifen abgetrennt)." translated: dorsal surface of head capsule with twice as much yellow in C. caucasica and always reaching the ocellar triangle, while in C. conopsoides the yellow fascia on dorsal surface of head capsule narrower and never reaching the ocellar triangle; and "Der genannte gelbe Makel hat das Aussehen eines in die länge sehr ausgezogenen Trapez, welches an den Seiten zugespitzt ist (bei C. conopoides hat er das Aussehen eines schmäleren und kürzeren Streifens, welches an den Seiten zugespitzt ist, wobei er in der Mitte meistens eine Verjüngung hat mit einem, die letztere unterbrechenden schwarzen Streifen, was bei C. caucasicus niemals vorkommt). Beim Weibchen dieser Art hat der gelbe Makel die Form von zwei Rhomben, welche mit ihren Ecken aneinander liegen" translated: yellow macula broad, only narrower laterally (in C. conopsoides narrowed medially and laterally, at least narrowly separated medially by a black vitta, which never is the case in C. caucasica). The female with the medial corners of the yellow maculae on dorsal surface of head capsule touching. We propose Cerioides caucasicus as a junior synonym of Musca conopsoides.
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 168-172, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4196.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/167924