Ceriana media van Steenis & Ricarte, sp. n.
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 media

description: Ceriana media van Steenis & Ricarte sp. n.
Figs 16, 33, 34, 42, 68, 87–89, 100, 166
Diagnosis. This new species can be separated from the similar C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n. by the characteristic shape of the fascia at the frontal prominence (compare Figs 38, 39, 41 and 45); the angle of eyes which is larger in C. media sp. n. (130–140º) than in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n. (110–125o); the basoflagellomere which is clearly shorter than the pedicel (only slightly shorter to somewhat longer in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); the scutellum which is yellow (with extensive black posterior margin in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); wing cells bm and br partly bare of microtrichia (entirely microtrichose in C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.); and other characters of the genitalia.
Description. MALE (Figs 16, 33). Body length: 10.9–11.8 mm; wing length: 8.7–9.1 mm. Head (Fig. 42). Face strongly protruding antero-ventrally with clearly demarcated tubercle and concave below antennae. Head 1.9– 2.0 times wider than face just below the antennae; width of facial vitta 0.14–0.18 times the width of face; length of eye contiguity 1.2–1.3 times as long as length of frons; angle of eyes at eye contiguity 130–140o. Gena, mouth edge, hypostomal bridge, a narrow medial vitta and a characteristically shaped fascia at frontal prominence black. Vertical triangle and ocellar triangle black, dorsal surface of head capsule yellow. Frontal prominence 5.1–5.5 times longer than wide; relative length of pedicel is as 0.97–1.0: 1: 0.81–0.92. Antennae and frontal prominence brown-yellow to black coloured; arista white pilose. Thorax. Scutum black, postpronotum and notopleuron entirely yellow; with white pollinose maculae medially from the transverse suture and two vague white-grey vittae antero-medially. Pleuron black with two yellow maculae, one each on posterior 1/2–3/5 of posterior anepisternum and on dorsal 1/4–1/3 of katepisternum. Metasternum with long pile and a low, rounded elevation medially on antero-ventral part. Scutellum entirely yellow. Legs. Coxae black; trochanter yellow; apical 1/2–3/4 of femora black; apico-medial 1/4–1/3 of tibiae black; pro- and mesotarsus with tarsomeres 3–5 dark-brown to black; metatarsus entirely brown to black. Clear patch of black setulae present on antero-basal part of pro- and mesofemur and on medial part of metatrochanter. Mesotrochanter straight dorsally; mesofemur with a short, narrow, rugged and flattened area antero-basally; metatrochanter (Fig. 68) with rather deep sulcus and rather broad rim laterally; metatibia with small triangular appendix on apico-ventral part; metafemur elongate and slightly curved (Fig. 100). Wing. Hyaline except for anterior 1/2, along spurious vein and along cross-vein r-m and CuA2 black infuscate. Loop in vein R4+5 hyaline; deep with long appendix halfway down into cell r4+5. Cross-vein r-m slightly curved. Membrane covered in microtrichia, except along posterior margin on cell bm, cell br bare posterior to vena spuria and on alula, which is narrowly bare along the posterior margin and medially with very scattered microtrichia. The bare parts have sometimes very scattered microtrichia. Alula broad, 2.3–2.5 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Black and yellow coloured. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV is as 1: 1.8–1.9: 1.8–1.9: 2.0–2.2. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.7–3.8, 1: 3.9–4.7 and 1: 2.4–3.0. Tergite II about as wide as long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 0.87: 1.0. Tergite I with triangular yellow maculae antero-laterally, broadly separated medially. Fasciae on tergite II and III straight throughout; on tergite IV strongly narrowing laterally. Tergite IV strongly emarginated. Tergite I with low medial elevation; tergites III and IV medially without longitudinal elevation and with vague grey-white pollinosity medio-laterally. Sternites I–III with posterior yellow fascia. Genitalia. Epandrium with narrow ventral rim (Figs 87, 88); in dorsal view, cerci triangular shaped, apex rounded (Fig. 88), pile about half as long as width of cerci; surstylus bi-lobed, dorsal lobe elongate baso-medially narrowed with circular apex, ventral lobe very narrowly circular with membranous basal part (Fig. 87); surstylar apodeme semicircular shaped; hypandrium (Figs 87, 89) with broad base and narrower apex; hypandrium with small membranous area apico-ventrally; with very long and elongated lingula, medio-ventrally a slightly sclerotized irregularly shaped flange, medio-dorsally a pointed projection, apico-laterally with two very long threadlike appendages; superior lobe large triangular shaped, articulating with hypandrium and with dorsal ctenidion consisting of about 10 long and broad spines; aedeagus with baso-ventral elongated and pointed projection, medial projection long threadlike, dorsal projection broadly elongate with a weakly sclerotized apico-ventral flange. FEMALE (Fig. 34). Body length: approx 11.2 mm (head missing); wing length: 10.6 mm. Similar to male, except for normal sexual dimorphism and the following characters. Thorax. Scutellum with small postero-medial black macula. Legs. Metatrochanter without black spicules. Wing. Loop in vein R4+5 darkened. Alula microtrichose, on posterior half very scattered; broad, 2.3 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV: V is as 1: 1.9: 2.3: 1.9:0.67. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.6, 1: 5.2 and 1: 4.0. 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.
Type material. HOLOTYPE Ƌ; Afghanistan: " Afghanistan / 17.7.[19]53 / [leg.] Klapperich ", " R. Dahl coll. / NHM (E) 1997-240", " Holotype Ƌ / Ceriana media / van Steenis & Ricarte 2016" [red label] (NHM). PARATYPES, 1 Ƌ, 1 ♀, Afghanistan: " Afghanistan / 27.7.[19]52 / [leg.] Klapperich ", " R. Dahl coll. / NHM (E) 1997-240" (1 Ƌ JSA); Iran: “Тавризъ Персия / 5 V [19]14 / [leg.] Андриевский” (1 ♀ ZIN).
Distribution. (Fig. 166). Afghanistan and Iran.
Etymology. The epithet ‘ media ’ means intermediate in Latin and refers to the fact that this species has an intermediate morphology between C. conopsoides and C. skevingtoni sp. n.
Biology. Adults fly from mid April to late July.
Discussion. The possible synonyms of C. conopsoides are discussed under that species. The only species not studied and with an imprecise description is Musca adunata. The type locality of this species (Paris, France) is far beyond the distributional range of C. media and C. skevingtoni. The possible synonym of M. adunata with either C. media or C. skevingtoni is herewith rejected.
Several East-Palaearctic Ceriana species such as C. anceps (Séguy, 1948), C. japonica (Shiraki, 1968) and C.
nigerrima Violovitsh, 1974 resemble, in overall appearance, C. media sp. n. and C. skevingtoni sp. n., but they can be distinguished from these two by an entirely black scutellum. The Chinese species Ceriana grahami (Shannon, 1925), also similar to C. media sp. n. and C. skevingtoni sp. n., can be separated from these two by the following unique combination of characters: dorsal surface of head capsule with two yellow maculae that are posterolateral to the ocellar triangle (yellow colour more extended), scutum only with postpronotum and notopleuron yellow, pleuron black except for two yellow maculae and scutellum with a narrow medial yellow fascia.
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 175-177, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4196.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/167924