Medetera veles Loew, 1861

Grichanov, Igor Ya. & Gilasian, Ebrahim, 2023, An annotated checklist of Dolichopodidae (Diptera) species from Iran, with new records and a bibliography, Amurian Zoological Journal XV (1), pp. 82-109 : 96

103. Medetera veles Loew, 1861

Material examined. 3♂, 3♀, Tehran Prov., Velenjak, Sasan Park , 11.10.2022, I. Grichanov .

Distribution. Type locality: the USA: Florida. New record for Iran.

Notes. Medetera veles is most probably an overlooked species in the Palaearctic region. In the Nearctic, it is a common polyzonal species distributed throughout Canada and the USA, in Bermuda and Mexico. Bickel ( Bickel 1985) studied the holotypes and synonymized the Palaearctic Medetera bilineata Frey, 1915 , which was known from Europe eastward to eastern Siberia, and M. sphaeropyga Negrobov, 1972 , described from Russian Prymorye, with M. veles . Nevertheless, Negrobov, Naglis (2016) raised M. bilineata and M. sphaeropyga from synonymy, mentioning their difference in presence of simple setae on male epandrial lobe. In contrast, M. veles has plumose setae on male epandrial lobe. This species was recently recorded from some countries of Europe, some regions of European Russia and Siberia, and from Japan. The males from Iran examined have exactly the same hypopygium morphology, as that figured by Bickel ( Bickel 1985: Figs. 144–150).