Pocota hyrcanica Gilasian & Vujić & Hauser & Parchami-Araghi 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gilasian, Ebrahim
name: Vujić, Ante
name: Hauser, Martin
name: Parchami-Araghi, Mehrdad
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Pocota
Pocota hyrcanica

description: Pocota hyrcanica Gilasian & Hauser sp. nov.
Figs 1, 5, 7, 9, 11–23
Species diagnosis. Frons shiny black posteriorly along eye margin; postpronotum, notopleuron, proepisternum, dorsal margin of proepimeron, anepisternum (except anterior anepisternum), dorsal and ventral portions of katepisternum in male and anepimeron and scutellum in both male and female covered with long yellow pile; anterior surface of fore coxa predominantly bare, with a narrow black pilosity on posterior margin; abdominal tergite 2 with long yellowish orange pile in male, but present only laterally in female; surstylus slightly projected ventro-medially (lateral view) and tapered off (dorsal view); cercus broadened towards apex (lateral view); superior lobe of hypandrium triangular shaped basally, smoothly curved ventrally (Figs 5, 7, 9).
Description. MALE (holotype). Body length = 11.5 mm; wing length = 9.3 mm (Fig. 11). Head (Figs 12–13). Eye contiguity nearly as long as ocellar triangle; ocellar triangle shiny black, covered with long yellowish orange pile; frons predominantly bare, with some short yellowish pile between anterior ocellus and eye contiguity; frons predominantly shiny black, anterolateral greyish pollinosity reaching facial pollinosity; face laterally with greyish pollinosity and shiny black medially, about 1/3 as wide as head medially; gena shiny black; scape and basal 2/3 of pedicel brown, rest of antenna orange; flagellum almost 1.6 times as long as pedicel, arista 2.75 times as long as flagellum; palpus and prementum black; occiput covered with light greyish pollinosity extending below the eyes as a narrow strip and with long yellowish pile. Thorax (Fig. 11). Thorax shiny black; anterior half of scutum covered with long yellowish pile; posterior half of scutum covered with long black pile; postpronotum, notopleuron, proepisternum, dorsal margin of proepimeron, anepisternum (except anterior anepisternum), dorsal and ventral portions of katepisternum and anepimeron covered with long yellowish pile; scutellum black with long yellowish pile. Wing (Fig. 11). Hyaline, with a median brownish cross-band extending to the apical margin of 2nd basal cell (bm); wing predominantly microtrichose, basal half of 2nd basal cell (bm) and anterior narrow margin of posterior cubital cell (cup) almost bare; basal part of vein R sparsely pilose; halter dark brown; calypter light brown, outer margin of calypter dark brown. Legs. Predominantly shiny black; coxae with weakly greyish pollinosity, fore coxa predominantly bare on anterior surface, with a narrow black pilosity on posterior margin; mid and hind coxae with long mixed yellow and dark brown pile; femora black except for apical brown rim; basal and apical half of posterior surface of femora with long yellow and dark brown pile respectively; tibiae predominantly black, basal 1/ 3–1/4 and apical margin brownish orange; tarsi yellowish orange, tarsomere 5 blackish. Abdomen (Fig. 11). Shiny black, predominantly covered with long yellowish orange pile; tergite 4 with long brownish black pile. Genitalia. Surstylus slightly projected ventro-medially (lateral view) and tapered off (dorsal view); cercus broadened towards apex (lateral view); superior lobe of hypandrium triangular basally, smoothly curved ventrally (Figs 5, 7, 9).
FEMALE. Same as the male except for the following differences: body length = 11 mm; wing length = 9.2 mm (Fig. 14). Head (Figs 15–16). Eyes separated by frons; frons widening anteriorly; frons less than 1/5 as wide as head below anterior ocellus, widening towards antennal insertion; face shiny black, nearly half as wide as head at ventral margin of eyes; a pair of small triangular greyish facial spots begin from antennal insertion to eye margin and continue along eye margin ventrally for a short distance; antenna light orange. Thorax (Figs 14–15). Posterior half of thorax covered with dark brown pile turning yellowish towards scutellar margin; scutellum with whitish pile apically; proepisternum, proepimeron and dorsal part of katepisternum with brownish black pile, sometimes with additional yellow pile on proepisternum. Legs (Fig. 15). Black pilose; fore and mid tarsi light brown, with their basitarsus and tarsomere 4 dark brown, tarsomere 5 black; hind tarsus with basitarsus dark brown, tarsomeres 2 + 3 light brown, tarsomere 4 dark brown and tarsomere 5 black. Abdomen (Figs 14–15). Tergite 1 with short dark brown pile; tergite 2 with short dark pile on median 1/3, narrowing towards hind margin and covered with long yellowish orange pile laterally; tergite 4 with thinner brownish pile.
Type material. HOLOTYPE: 1 ♂, IRAN, Golestan province: Golestan National Park, Tang-e Gol, 37°23′N 55°48′E, 700 m, 17.v.1993, leg. A. Pazuki / M. Badii [HMIM]. PARATYPE: 1 ♀ [as P. personata in Hauser (1998)], AZERBAIJAN, Yardymly, Avash, 38°50′N 48°10′E, 1200–1500 m, 17.vi.1996, leg. M. Hauser [CSCA].
Etymology. The epithet ‘ hyrcanica ’ refers to the Hyrcanian forests, where the holotype was collected.
Remarks. The genus Pocota is Holarctic, with only two species, P. personata (Harris, 1780) and P. bomboides Hunter, 1897, occurring in the Palaearctic (Europe and Transcaucasia) and Western Nearctic regions respectively (Hippa 1978; Peck 1988; Stubbs & Falk 2002; Bartsch et al. 2009; Reemer et al. 2009). Considering the morphological features given by Mutin & Barkalov (1996) for separating the genus Pocota from Pseudopocota, our new species fits to their concept of Pocota, because, for example, it has a bare and weakly developed metasternum, an extremely short petiole of the wing cell r4+5 and a structure of the male genitalia that is similar to that shown in Mutin & Barkalov (1996: figures 5–7).
Hauser (1998) reported 77 species of hoverflies from Azerbaijan including a single female of P. personata. This female specimen was revised in the course of this study and found to be conspecific with the male of P. hyrcanica sp. nov. based on the following characters: greyish pollinosity on frons confined to its anterolateral portion; anepimeron and scutellum covered with yellow pile; anterior surface of fore coxa almost bare, with scattered pilosity apically; abdominal tergite 4 covered with brownish black pile. Thus, P. personata is now excluded from the hoverfly checklist of Azerbaijan. A male of P. personata from Serbia was examined in detail and compared with the descriptions and available illustrations of this species and its synonyms— P. apiformis (Schrank, 1781) and P. apicata (Meigen, 1822) —in Sack (1932), Hippa (1978), Mutin & Barkalov (1996) and Stubbs & Falk (2002). The chaetotaxy, pollinosity, colouration and structure of the male genitalia confirmed that this male from Serbia was P. personata and not P. hyrcanica sp. nov.. Morphological differences between P. hyrcanica sp. nov. and P. personata are listed in Table 1.
The male holotype of P. hyrcanica sp. nov. represents the first record of the genus Pocota from Iran. Prior to our research, in the Middle East region, Pocota had only been known from Transcaucasia (Peck 1988) and Azerbaijan (Hauser 1998). The female paratype is from a similar forest in the Yardymly district of Azerbaijan, which consisted of Q. petraea and Fagus orientalis Lipsky.
The following material of Pocota species other than P. hyrcanica sp. nov. was examined (all are new records): Pocota personata: 1 ♂, SERBIA, mountain Stara Planina, Pilj 7.v.1988, leg. A. Vujić [FSUNS]; 1 ♂, GERMANY, Darmstadt, Institute for Zoology (on window), 15.v.1998, leg. B. Koch [CSCA]. Pocota bomboides: 1 ♂, USA, Oregon, Jackson Co., Mt Ashland, 65–7100’ [1900–2000 m], vii–26–66 [26.vii.1966], leg. J. Powell [CSCA]; 2 ♂ USA, California, El Dorado Co., 7.vi.2009, Ice house road, 38°47′49″N 120°23′60″W, 1500 m, leg. M. Hauser [CSCA]; 1 ♀, USA, Arizona, Greenlee Co. Apache Nat’l Forest, 100m up cyn. NE Rd 24 with Fish Crk on SW side, 8550ft [2600 m], 33°38′15″N 109°20′30″W, 30.vi.1995, S. D. Gaimari, Sharkey Malaise trap span cyn [CSCA].
description: Published as part of Gilasian, Ebrahim, Vujić, Ante, Hauser, Martin & Parchami-Araghi, Mehrdad, 2017, New data on the Syrphidae (Diptera) of Iran, with descriptions of two new species, pp. 27-50 in Zootaxa 4303 (1) on pages 31-35, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4303.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/840454