Merodon bessarabicus Veselić, Vujić & Radenković, 2017, sp. n.
Creators: name: Veselić, Sanja
name: Vujić, Ante
name: Radenković, Snežana
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy

description: Key to species complexes and species of the Merodon bessarabicus subgroup
(Distribution data are included)
MALES
1 Tergites only with pale pile..............................................................................2
- Tergites with pale pile and stripes of black pile..............................................................7
2 Mesonotum only with pale pile...........................................................................3
- Mesonotum with both pale and black pile, black ones present at least near wing basis............................... 5
3 Tergite II (and III) with a pair of orange lateral spots............... Merodon luteomaculatus complex (South-East Europe)
- Tergites uniformly dark brown to black (Fig. 9 a)............................................................ 4
4 Tergites II and III with a pair of lateral microtrichose stripes (Fig. 9 a); hind femur black except for paler apical margin (Fig. 9 b); pile on eyes black in upper 1/2....................................... Merodon legionensis (Iberian Peninsula)
- Tergites usually without microtrichia (Fig. 7 a); hind femur with yellowish apical fifth, including triangular process (Fig. 7 c); pile on eyes black in upper 1/3.................................................... Merodon flavicornis (France)
5 Black pile on mesoscutum distributed only between wing bases (Fig. 15 a).............................................................................. Merodon ambiguus complex (Aegean islands, Balkan and Anatolian Peninsulas)
- Pile on at least posterior half of mesoscutum black (as in Fig. 5 a)................................................ 6
6 Eyes in upper third with black pile; hind femora in apical half with black pile; almost all surface of mesoscutum covered with black pile, except pale stripes of pile on anterior margin; anterior half of scutellum with black pile, posterior half with pale pile (Fig. 4 b)........................................................... Merodon adriaticus sp. n. (Adriatic coast)
- Eyes and hind femora mostly covered with pale pile; mesoscutum with black pile on posterior half; scutellum covered with pale pile (Fig. 12 b)......................................................... Merodon rufipes (Eastern Europe)
7 Mesoscutum covered with pale pile............... Merodon sapphous complex (Aegean islands and Anatolian Peninsula)
- Mesoscutum with at least wing bases bearing black pile..................................................... .. 8
8 Eyes in upper half covered with black pile............. Merodon bessarabicus complex (Anatolian and Balkan Peninsulas)
- Pile of eyes pale or with few black pile in apical fifth........................ Merodon quercetorum (Iberian Peninsula)
description: Published as part of Veselić, Sanja, Vujić, Ante & Radenković, Snežana, 2017, Three new Eastern-Mediterranean endemic species of the Merodon aureus group (Diptera: Syrphidae), pp. 401-434 in Zootaxa 4254 (4) on page 431, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4254.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/556010