Afrosyrphus varipes Curran 1927
Creators: name: Mengual, Ximo
name: Ssymank, Axel
name: Skevington, Jeffrey H.
name: Reemer, Menno
name: Ståhls, Gunilla
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Syrphidae
Afrosyrphus
Afrosyrphus varipes

description: Afrosyrphus varipes Curran, 1927
Figs 1–2, 3A, C, 4A, D, 5A, C–E, 6
Afrosyrphus varipes Curran, 1927: 50 (type locality: Kisangani [=Stanleyville], Democratic Republic of the Congo; holotype, ♂, AMNH, by monotypy).
Differential diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from A. schmuttereri sp. nov. as stated in the identification key. Overall a smaller species with slightly narrower abdomen, paler pilosity on calypter fringe, scutum and abdominal segments, and male frontal triangle with pale pruinosity along eye margin (Fig. 4D). Male genitalia as in Fig. 5 C–E, with ventrally pointed surstyli and postgonites with a large triangular posterodorsal process (see also Vockeroth 1969: fig. 29). Females are also lighter than in A. schmuttereri sp. nov. Tergite 2 is entirely orange in A. varipes (with posterior black fascia in A. schmuttereri sp. nov.), the femora are only slightly darker than the tibiae (femora darker than tibiae in A. schmuttereri sp. nov.), and the face is pale in background colour (black in A. schmuttereri sp. nov.). Both sexes have similar hind legs. The hind first tarsomere (= metabasitarsomere) appears dark and bristly due to the presence of long, black pile (Fig. 5A).
Material examined
Holotype DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • ♂; Tshopo Province, Kisangani [= Stanleyville]; 1° N, 25.1667° E; ca 460 m a.s.l.; Mar. 1915; Lang and Chapin leg.; based on image at http://research.amnh. org/iz/types_db/details.php?specimen_id=2410; AMNH.
Other material
CAMEROON • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; Adamaoua Province, Ngaoundéré, Ranch de Ngaoundaba; 7.12944° N, 13.69556° E; 1265 m a.s.l.; 12 May 2006; A. Ssymank leg.; specimen identifiers: ZFMK-DIP-00015968 to 00015970; ASPC • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; specimen identifier: ZFMK-DIP-00015971; GenBank: MN662551; ZFMK.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • 1 ♂; Tshopo Province, Yambuya; 1.263669° N, 24.552813° E; ca 400 m a.s.l.; 24 Nov. 1913; J. Bequaert leg.; specimen identifier: USNM ENT 00114576; USNM • 1 ♂; North Kivu Province, P.N. Albert, Lesse (near Tungudu); 0.75° N, 29.8° E; 760 m a.s.l.; 21 Jul. 1914; J. Bequaert leg.; specimen identifier: RMCA ENT 000034062; RMCA.
UGANDA • 1 ♀; Central Region, Entebbe, Kisubi Forest; 0.11928° N, 32.52831° E; ca 1160 m a.s.l.; 24 Apr. 1976; M. Paulus leg.; specimen identifier: CNC DIPTERA 102962; GenBank: MN662560; CNC.
Genetics
A total of two specimens was successfully sequenced, one sequence with a length of 627 bp (ZFMK-DIP- 0001597, Genbank: MN662551) and another one 307 bp long (CNC DIPTERA 102962, Genbank: MN662560). The obtained COI sequences have an uncorrected pairwise distance of 0.33% and differ by 5.54–6.54% from the COI sequences obtained for A. schmuttereri sp. nov.
Distribution
This species has previously been recorded from Cameroon (Ssymank 2012), DRC (Curran 1927, 1938b), Angola and South Africa (Smith & Vockeroth 1980) (see also Dirickx 1998). No specimens from the latter two countries were studied by the present authors, as Smith & Vockeroth (1980) did not provide any information about the records. Here, we present the first records from Uganda. The material from Kenya collected and studied by Schmutterer (1974) was originally identified as A. varipes, but it belongs to A. schmuttereri sp. nov. Consequently, the presence of A. varipes in Kenya needs confirmation, as well as its presence in Angola and South Africa.
MtDNA COI barcodes
The topology of the tree with the highest likelihood (Fig. 6) compared favourably with the Neighbor-Joining tree (not shown). A total of seven specimens were successfully sequenced. The obtained COI sequences have an uncorrected pairwise distance of 0.08–1.52% among the specimens of A. schmuttereri sp. nov., 0.33% between the two specimens of A. varipes and 5.54–6.54% between the two species of Afrosyrphus.
description: Published as part of Mengual, Ximo, Ssymank, Axel, Skevington, Jeffrey H., Reemer, Menno & Ståhls, Gunilla, 2020, The genus Afrosyrphus Curran (Diptera, Syrphidae), with a description of a new species, pp. 1-17 in European Journal of Taxonomy 635 on pages 12-13, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.635, http://zenodo.org/record/3778829