Primocerioides regale Violovitsh 1985
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
Primocerioides
Primocerioides regale

description: Primocerioides regale Violovitsh, 1985
Figs 51, 114, 115, 122, 123, 130, 131, 138, 141–144, 145, 151, 171
Primocerioides regale Violovitsh, 1985: 95. Type locality ‘ Yugoslavia, near Belgrade' [HT ♂ ZIN, lost?]. Sphiximorpha hiemalis Ricarte, Nedeljković and Hancock, 2012: 18. Type locality Greece, Lesvos [HT ♂ HMUG] syn. nov. Sphiximorpha hiemalis: Speight (2013).
Redescription. MALE (Figs 114, 122). Body length: 14.8 mm; wing length: 10.5 mm. Head (Fig. 130). Face hardly protruding antero-ventrally without tubercle and very strongly concave below antennae. Head 1.9 times wider than face just below the antennae; length of eye contiguity 0.53 times as long as length of frons; angle of eyes at eye contiguity 145o. Face with characteristic yellow and black colour pattern; genae with anterior and posterior black vitta from eye margin to mouth edge, hypostomal bridge anterior margin black posterior part yellow; face with 4 black maculae medially centred around a yellow oval macula; a black fascia at base of frontal prominence. Frons with yellow posterior fascia. Vertical triangle and ocellar triangle black. Dorsal surface of head capsule yellow, posterior of ocellar triangle narrowly yellow. Frontal prominence 0.44 times as long as wide; relative length of pedicel is as 1.8: 1: 2.5. Antennae orange; arista white pilose.
Thorax. Scutum black with yellow macula on postpronotum and notopleuron, and a yellow lateral vitta anterior of scutellum; with white pollinose maculae medially from the transverse suture. Pleuron black with one yellow macula on posterior part of posterior anepisternum. Pile long and white, on scutum mixed black and white, some black pile on ventral part of anepimeron; ventral half of anterior anepisternum with pile nearly as long as pile on adjacent part of dorsal surface of head capsule. Scutellum entirely yellow. Legs. Coxae black, all other parts red-brown. Pile on legs long and white; pile on apico-posterior part of femora longer; metatrochanter without setulae. Mesofemur with broad flattened area antero-basally (Fig. 145); metatrochanter with weak sulcus and narrow rim laterally (Fig. 143). Metatibia without appendix on apico-ventral part, elongate; metafemur elongate (Fig. 151). Wing. Hyaline except for brownish anterior 1/2 to spurious vein and along vein CuA. Vein R4+5 straight, with short appendix into cell r4+5. Cross-vein r-m slightly curved. Membrane covered in microtrichia, except anterobasal 2/3 of cell cup and posterior half of alula; alula 3.0 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Black and yellow coloured. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV is as 1: 3.8: 3.7: 3.9. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III and IV as 1: 3.5, 1: 4.7 and 1: 3.3. Tergite II wider than long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 1.2: 1.4. Tergite II with broad triangular yellow maculae on antero-lateral corner, broadly separated, ratio of black between maculae and width of tergite anteriorly 1: 1.6; fascia on tergite II medially concave, gradually narrowed towards lateral margin; fascia on tergite III nearly straight; fascia on tergite IV medially concave, gradually narrowed towards lateral margin. Tergite IV weakly emarginated and with grey-yellow triangular pollinose maculae medially. Sternites II–IV with posterior straight yellow fascia. Genitalia. Epandrium with rather narrow ventral rim (Figs 141, 142); in dorsal view, cerci elongate, semi-circular shaped, with triangular appendix apico-medially (Fig. 143), pile about twice as long as width of cerci; surstylus bi-lobed, dorsal lobe long and broadly elongate only slightly narrowed medially, ventral lobe small semi-circular with membranous basal part (Fig. 141); surstylar apodeme elongate and rectangular shaped, separated in two sclerotized parts (Fig. 144); hypandrium (Figs 141, 142) with very broad base and slightly narrower apex; with short and broad lingula; apex medially with narrow and sharp tooth; superior lobe semicircular shaped, articulating with hypandrium; aedeagus with short and broad baso-ventral projection, apex with three projections, dorsally and ventrally short and rounded, medially somewhat longer and rectangular.
FEMALE (Figs 115, 123). Body length: 13.9 mm; wing length: 10.4 mm. Similar to male, except for normal sexual dimorphism and the following characters. Head (Fig. 131). Head 1.8 times wider than face just below the antennae. Frontal prominence 0.39 times as long as wide; relative length of pedicel is as 2.2: 1: 3.2. Gena predominantly brown-yellow, only anterior part with black vitta from eye margin to mouth edge. Face with two brown round maculae laterally along eye margin. Dorsal surface of head capsule yellow, posterior of ocellar triangle only very narrowly black. Antennae orange, scape and pedicel slightly darker. Legs. Procoxa (Fig. 51). Wing. Alula 3.1 times longer than wide. Abdomen. Length of tergite I: II: III: IV: V is as 1: 3.4: 3.2: 3.3: 1.7. Width of yellow fascia medially: length of tergite of respectively tergite II, III, IV and V as 1: 3.6, 1: 3.9, 1: 3.9 and 1: 3.5. Tergite II wider than long, anterior part most narrow; length of tergite II: width of tergite II at respectively anterior: posterior as 1: 1.2: 1.6. Ratio of black between maculae on tergite II and width of tergite II anteriorly 1: 1.6.
Material examined. Holotype of Sphiximorpha hiemalis: 1 Ƌ: “ Greece: Lesvos / nr Agiassos / 27.ii – 10.iii 2006 / [leg] E.G. Hancock ”, “Huntarian Mus / GLAHM / Entry No. 417”, “ 150472 ”, “ HOLOTYPE / Sphiximorpha hiemalis / Ricarte, Nedeljković & Hancock, 2012 ” [red label, handwritten], (HMAG). Additional material: 1 ♀ (IRSNB).
Distribution (Fig. 171). Cyprus, Greece (Lesvos), Serbia.
Biology. Adult habitats are streams along forests of Caprinus / Quercus, Quercus frainetto / Q. pubescens and olive orchards. They visit flowers of Pyrus sp. (Speight 2013). Adults fly from late February to late June.
Discussion. Primocerioides regale was described by Violovitsh (1985) from a male supposedly collected near Belgrade, in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia (today, Serbia). The holotype was not found in expected repository collections such as ISEA, ZIN and the Natural History Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. The occurrence of P. regale in Europe is neglected by subsequent authors (e.g., Peck 1988; Dirickx 1994; Radenković 2008; Speight 2013; Ricarte et al. 2012). However, the holotype of S. hiemalis fits to the concept of Primocerioides sensu Shannon (1927b) by having a very short frontal prominence, a non-constricted base of abdomen and pilose eyes. Moreover, the holotype of S. hiemalis fits to the original description of P. regale, except for the antenna colour: in the holotype of P. regale, the scape and pedicel are brown and the basoflagellomere yellow, while in the holotype of S. hiemalis all antennal segments are yellow. Based on the morphological similarities, we propose S. hiemalis as a junior synonym of P. regale. We do not consider it wise to designate a neotype for P. re g al e as it is unclear whether the original type is lost.
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 186-190, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4196.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/167924