Eumerus pollinipedes Gilasian & van Steenis, 2022

Gilasian, Ebrahim, van Steenis, Jeroen & Parchami-Araghi, Mehrdad, 2022, Six new species of the genus Eumerus Meigen, 1822 from Iran (Diptera, Syrphidae), Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 8 (3), pp. 483-512 : 491-493

Eumerus pollinipedes Gilasian & van Steenis sp. nov. ( Figs 6, 7, 8)

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7967C5D1-53FE-43D2-ADBB-E8290ED83EFC

Differential diagnosis: This species is closely related to E. niehuisi Doczkal, 1996 and E. crassus Grković, Vujić & Radenković [in Grković et al., 2015]. The later species, in the original description, was compared to E. sogdianus Stackelberg, 1952 from the E. strigatus species group ( Grković et al., 2015), it belongs however to the E. minotaurus group.

Body length about 6.5 mm (in E. niehuisi 9–10 mm); ocellar triangle equilateral (isosceles in E. niehuisi ); pedicel with long pile ventrally, much longer than dorsal pile (in E. crassus and E. niehuisi with shorter pile, ventral pile only slightly longer than dorsal pile); face and frontal triangle with entirely white pollinosity (in E. crassus and E. niehuisi white pollinose in ventral part and yellow pollinose in dorsal part); scutum with 3 distinct pollinose vittae extending to posterior portion of transverse suture (in E. crassus lateral vittae extending almost to scutellum, in E. niehuisi median vitta very narrow or absent); supra-alar callus with yellow pile posteriorly as in E. crassus , at most one black pilus present (in E. niehuisi mixed of yellow and black pile); pre-genital segment yellowish pilose (in E. niehuisi with brownish-black pile); lunulate pollinose maculae on tergum IV clearly developed (in E. crassus absent and in E. niehuisi either weakly developed or absent); sternum IV wide, squarish, posterior margin with two small rounded lobes and a very wide weakly curved incision medially, this incision wide, two times wider than width of one lobe (in E. crassus less squarish, with more rounded postero-lateral corners, and incision less wide, only slightly wider than width of one lobe, in E. niehuisi lobes very wide, incision as wide as one lobe), cercus with small lobe ventrally (in E. crassus this lobe more clearly defined and more dorsally situated, in E. niehuisi with rather large lobes devided by a medial incision, deviding the apex into two equally sized lobes), surstylus broadly triangular shaped as in E. niehuisi , although the basal part clearly narrower in E. niehuisi (in E. crassus more rectangular shaped and with relatively narrow basal part).

Furthermore E. pollinipedes Gilasian & van Steenis sp. nov. differs from E. crassus by much less dense pile on eyes; vertical triangle with pollinosity at eye contiguity and poster-laterally from the posterior ocelli, along eye margin (in E. crassus seemingly without pollinosity), pile on tergum IV as long as pile on terga II and III (in E. crassus longer than pile on terga II and III).

Material examined. Holotype: IRAN ♂ (pinned), Khuzestan prov., Dez National Park, Mianrood, sanctuary for Persian Fallow Deer , 32°06′11.2″N 48°26′43″E, 11 March–10 May 2015, 50 m, Malaise trap, E. Gilasian ( HMIM) . Paratypes, 9 ♂♂, 16 ♀♀: 1 ♂, 4 ♀♀, same data as holotype ( HMIM) ; 2 ♂♂, same data as holotype except for 32°06′24.5″N 48°26′16.8″E, 53 m ( HMIM) ; 2 ♂♂, 1♀, same as previous ( JSA) ; 2 ♂♂,

4 ♀♀ (pinned), Khuzestan prov., Shoush, Karkheh National Park, Persian Fallow Deer sanctuary, 32°04′36.5″N 48°14′15.6″E, 11 March–10 May 2015, 45 m, Malaise trap, E. Gilasian ( HMIM) ; 2 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀, same as previous except for 32°04′42.7″N 48°14′33.2″E, 45 m ( HMIM) ; 3 ♀♀, same as previous ( JSA).

Etymology. The specific epithet “pollinipedes ” consists of the words pollinis, Latin for pollen and pedes, Latin for legs, referring to the extensively pollinose legs, which occur in both E. niehuisi and E. crassus . The epithet is a noun in apposition.

Description Male. Body length: 5.8–6.4 mm; wing length: 4.8–5.4 mm. Head ( Figs 6C, D). Eyes short pilose, holoptic; eye contiguity 0.37–0.50 times as long as frontal triangle; face and frontal triangle white pilose, densely covered with white pollinosity; vertical triangle white pollinose on anterior 1/2–2/3, with yellow to yellowish-brown pile; frontal and vertical triangles almost equal in length; head in frontal view about 3 times as wide as face; ocellar triangle equilateral, shiny black, with brown to brownish-black pile; distance between posterior ocelli and posterior margin of eye about 0.8 times as long as ocellar triangle; occiput grey pollinose; frontal triangle 1.5 times as wide as ocellar triangle; vertex at posterior corner of eyes about 1.3 times as wide as vertex over posterior ocelli; head in dorsal view 4.2 times as wide as vertex at posterior corner of eyes; antenna dark brown; pedicel about 0.55 times as long as basoflagellomere and with long pile ventrally, at least 1/2 times as long as width of pedicel; arista 1.5 times as long as basoflagellomere ( Fig. 6E). Thorax. Blackish, with green lustre, scutum predominantly short yellowish pilose, a few black pile present in postsutural portion; scutum with 3 distinct grey pollinose vittae extending to posterior portion of transverse suture ( Fig. 6A); scutellum with a marginal rim and slightly serrated posteriorly, white pilose; pleurae covered with whitish pile except for bare meron and katepimeron; metasternum pilose. Legs. Predominantly white pollinose, with yellowish-white pile; femora black with exception for narrow apical orange margin; tibiae orange in basal 1/3 and black in apical 2/3; tarsi orange ventrally and black dorsally; metafemur incrassate, about 3.6 times as long as wide ( Fig. 6F), ventral pile about 1/3 as wide as metafemur; anteroventral and posteroventral margins of metafemur with an apical row of 9 and 12 black setae respectively. Wing. Hyaline; entirely microtrichose; calypters yellowish-white; halter yellowish-orange. Abdomen ( Fig. 6G). Brownish-black, with green lustre, short whitish pilose; terga II–III each with a pair of oblique pollinose maculae; tergum IV with a pair of narrow lunulate white pollinose maculae; sternum IV square, with a shallow median U-shaped incision posteriorly ( Fig. 6H). Male genitalia. Hypandrium simple; aedeagal apodeme in lateral view as in Fig. 8C; epandrium, cercus, posterior and anterior lobes of surstylus as in Figs 8A, B.

Female ( Fig. 7). Body length: 6.3–9.0 mm; wing length: 5.1–7.2 mm. Similar to the male except for the sexual dimorphism and for the following characters: Frons mostly shiny black, narrowly pollinose along eye margin ( Fig. 7C); head in dorsal view about 3.9 times as wide as vertex at posterior corner of eyes.

Distribution. Iran.

Remarks. The type material of Eumerus crassus or E. niehuisi was not available for this study. The original descriptions ( Doczkal, 1996; Grković et al., 2015) were used to identify these species.