Cheilosia ( Cheilosia ) albipila Meigen, 1838

Bot, Sander, Mengual, Ximo, Meutter, Frank Van de & Skevington, Jeffrey H., 2025, Review of the genus Cheilosia Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Syrphidae) from the Caucasus, with the description of 14 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 1023, pp. 1-181 : 10-12

Cheilosia ( Cheilosia) albipila Meigen, 1838

Fig. 4

Cheilosia albipila Meigen, 1838: 125 .

Cheilosia albipila – Stackelberg & Richter 1968: 244. — Stackelberg 1970: 61. — Tóth 1986: 92. — Peck 1988: 96. — Barkalov 1993: 718. — Mengual et al. 2020: 14.

Cheilosia albipina Meigen, 1822 [sic] – Gujabidze 2002: 246.

Differential diagnosis

The lack of setae along the posterior margin of the scutellum, in combination with a pilose eye, bare face, and bicoloured legs distinguishes Cheilosia albipila from many other Cheilosia . It can be confused with species from the subgenus Montanocheila Barkalov, 2002 , but these species have a brown pattern on the wing (hyaline in C. albipila ) and the male genitalia are different with the apical sclerite of distiphallus with two pairs (anterior and posterior) of lobes (the posterior lobes are missing in C. albipila ). The pile on the eye is white, while they are black on the, otherwise, quite similar C. aurantia sp. nov. In particular, the male of C. albipila is similar to that of C. megaclama sp. nov. (the female of that species has the eye bare; pilose in C. albipila ), but that species has the pile on anepimeron straight or with bent apex (with wavy apex in C. albipila ), has the face wider, below antennae about as wide as an eye at the same height (in C. albipila below antennae about ⅔ as wide as an eye at the same height), and has parafacia shiny (pruinose in C. albipila ). It differs from C. grossa ( Fallén, 1817) by, amongst other characters, the predominantly orange postpedicel (entirely black in C. grossa ).

Material examined

Not collected in 2018, but collected in 2019 and 2023.

GEORGIA – Mtskheta-Mtianeti • 2 ♂♂; Lutkhubi ; 42.3797° N, 44.7969° E; 1463 m a.s.l.; 6 May 2023; S. Bot leg.; SBA, SB.002969 , SB.002970 • 2 ♂♂; same data as for preceding; ZFMK, ZFMKTIS-8027973 , SB.002968 • 2 ♀♀; Lutkhubi ; 42.3867° N, 44.79° E; 1580 m a.s.l.; 6 May 2023; F. Van de Meutter leg.; FMT • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; ZFMK • 2 ♂♂; Lutkhubi; 42.3930° N, 44.7929° E; 1700 m a.s.l.; 6 May 2023; W. Opdekamp leg.; WOR, A004 = ZFMK-TIS-8028455 , A027 • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; WPR, A009 = ZFMK-TIS-8028454 • 2 ♂♂; Lutkhubi ; 42.3989° N, 44.7995° E; 2100 m a.s.l.; 6 May 2023; W. Opdekamp leg.; WPR. B003 , B006 • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; WOR, B007 • 2 ♂♂; Lutkhubi ; 42.3984° N, 44.7996° E; 2068 m a.s.l.; 8 May 2023; S. Bot leg.; SBA, SB.002965 = ZFMK-TIS-8027983 , SB.002966 • 1 ♂; same data as for preceding; ZFMK, ZFMKTIS-8027972 • 2 ♀♀; same data as for preceding; SBA, SB.002967 = ZFMK-TIS-8027996 , SB.003042 • 6 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Lutkhubi ; 42.3936° N, 44.7923° E; 1760 m a.s.l.; 8 May 2023; F. Van de Meutter leg.; FMT • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Lutkhubi ; 42.4006° N, 44.7956° E; 2130 m a.s.l.; 8 May 2023; F. Van de Meutter leg.; FMT • 2 ♂♂; Lutkhubi ; 42.3930° N, 44.7929° E; 1734 m a.s.l.; 8 May 2023; W. Opdekamp leg.; WOR, C010 , C027 • 1 ♂; Kodiani ; 41.7305° N, 43.3537° E; 2160 m a.s.l.; 10 May 2023; F. Van de Meutter leg.; FMT, ZFMK-TIS-8027945 • 2 ♀♀; same data as for preceding; FMT, ZFMK-TIS-8027943 , ZFMKTIS-8027944 . – Samtskhe-Javakheti • 1 ♂; Abastumani road pass; 41.83° N, 42.81° E; 2260 m a.s.l.; 10 Jun. 2019; J. van Steenis leg.; JSB, 2019-00.889 = ZFMK-TIS-8009603 • 1 ♀; Sakire ; 41.7301° N, 43.3306° E; 1820 m a.s.l.; 10 May 2023; F. Van de Meutter leg.; FMT .

Genetics

DNA barcodes of C. albipila are recovered into two clusters without high support (BS <90%), together with the barcodes of C. grossa and C. pseudogrossa ; although the cluster of specimens of the last two species receive high support in our analysis.

Remarks

The DNA barcodes of this species are grouped into two clusters, one for European individuals and another one for Caucasian specimens. At first glance, Caucasian specimens look different from European ones, for instance, they are smaller, have pale pile whitish instead of golden, and males have tibiae with a black ring in the middle. However, all these characters can be found in European populations as well, especially in some studied specimens from Greece and Bulgaria, which are genetically similar to other European populations. We did not find consistent morphological differences between European and Caucasian populations and the male genitalia show no differences either.

There is some morphological variation within the specimens collected in the Caucasus. The male collected in 2019 ( Fig. 4C, ZFMK-TIS-8009603) looks different from most other Caucasian C. albipila by having long black setae on the posterior margin of the scutellum and being much darker overall: postpedicel dark brown becoming red ventrally, thorax with extensive black pile laterally, all tibiae with a distinct black ring, and wing veins dark grey.

Biology

During our expeditions, collected between 6 May and 10 June at an altitude between 1463 and 2260 m a.s.l., always near meadows and often feeding on Salix sp. catkins.

Distribution

Western and Central Palaearctic, up to Lake Baikal. Within the Caucasus known from Georgia and Russia.