Revision of the Afrotropical species of the hover fly genus Mesembrius Rondani (Diptera, Syrphidae) using morphological and molecular data

By

Jordaens, Kurt
Goergen, Georg
Skevington, Jeffrey
Kelso, Scott
De Meyer, Marc

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1046

Pages

1--141

Subjects

Africa , Afrotropical region , DNA barcoding , Eristalinae , Flower fly , new species , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1046.57052

 

Abstract

The Afrotropical representatives of the hover fly genusMesembriusRondani, 1857 (Diptera) are divided into two subgenera, namelyMesembriuss.s. andVadonimyiaSéguy, 1951 and, in this present work, the subgenus Mesembrius s.s. is revised. A total of 23Mesembriuss.s. species are recognised for the Afrotropics. Known species are re-described and six species new to science are described:Mesembrius arcuatussp. nov.,M. copelandisp. nov.,M. longipilosussp. nov.,M. sulcussp. nov.,M. tibialissp. nov.andM. vockerothisp. nov.Mesembrius africanus(Verrall, 1898) is considered a junior synonym ofM. senegalensis(Macquart, 1842),M. cteniferHull, 1941 a junior synonym ofM. caffer(Loew, 1858),M. lagopus(Loew, 1869) a junior synonym ofM. capensis(Macquart, 1842) andM. platytarsisCurran, 1929 a junior synonym ofM. simplicipesCurran, 1929. The females ofMesembrius chapiniCurran, 1939,M. rexCurran, 1927 andM. regulus(Hull, 1937) are described for the first time. Lectotypes are designated forMesembrius caffer,M. capensis,M. cyanipennis(Bezzi, 1915),M. minor(Bezzi, 1915),M. senegalensis,M. strigilatus(Bezzi, 1912) andM. tarsatus(Bigot, 1883). Separate identification keys for males and females are presented. We obtained 236 DNA barcodes for 18 species. The relationships amongst the differentMesembriusspecies are briefly discussed, based on morphological and DNA barcode data.