Merodon vladimiri Vujić et Kočiš Tubić, 2018

Kočiš Tubić, Nataša, Ståhls, Gunilla, Ačanski, Jelena, Djan, Mihajla, Obreht Vidaković, Dragana, Hayat, Rüstem, Khaghaninia, Samad, Vujić, Ante & Radenković, Snežana, 2018, An integrative approach in the assessment of species delimitation and structure of the Merodon nanus species group (Diptera: Syrphidae), Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 18 (4), pp. 479-497 : 490-491

Merodon vladimiri Vujić et Kočiš Tubić sp. n.

Diagnosis. Belongs to the M. nanus group and a member of the M. aureus clade (sensu lato) in the sense of Mengual et al. (2006). The main morphological characters are as follows: species with stocky abdomen; pilose posterior part of the mesocoxa, an area with pile on the anterior anepisternum below the postpronotum, terga with transverse fasciae of pale pile instead of pollinose fasciae (rarely with indistinct pollinosity), spike absent from the metatrochanter in male, tibiae and tarsi mostly pale except for two dark apical tarsomeres; in the male genitalia ( Fig. 10), anterior surstyle lobe undeveloped; the posterior lobe of the surstylus is extremely large with a straight posterior margin, similar to M. neonanus ( Fig. 10c: psl) but from which it differs in shape of the apical part ( Fig. 10a), hypandrium broad ( Fig. 10b), and aedeagal box short and broad ( Fig. 10b: ae).

Description ( Fig. 11).

Male. Body length 11 mm; wing length 6 mm.

Head. Antenna brown-orange, basoflagellomere elongated, 2.1 times as long as wide, 1.8 times longer than pedicel, with dorsal margin convex basally and concave apically; arista 1.3 times longer than the basoflagellomere. Face and frons black with bronze metallic shine, covered with long whitish-yellow pile and sparse silver white pollinosity. Oral margin shiny brown-black, well-protruded. Vertical triangle isosceles, shiny black, except for silver-gray pollinosity near eye contiguity, covered with yellow or mixed yellow and black pile; ocellar triangle equilateral or slightly isosceles. Eye contiguity 12 ommatidia long. The ratio between lengths of vertical triangle:eye contiguity:ocellar triangle (in dorsal view) = 2:1:2. Eye pile dense, grayish. Occiput golden or shiny blue with whitish-yellow pile and dense white pollinosity along the eye margin.

Thorax. Mesonotum shiny black with pronounced metallic golden luster, covered with dense, erect yellow pile. Pleurae partly covered with pale pollinosity. Proepimeron, posterior anepisternum, anteroventral and posterodorsal parts of katepisternum, anepimeron, metasternum, and katatergum with long yellow pile. Wing hyaline, with dense, brown microtrichia; veins yellow-brown. Calypter bright yellow with dense long yellow marginal pile. Haltere yellow. Femora black, yellow only at tip. Metafemur not thickened, about 4.5 times as long as wide. Tibiae and tarsi yellow: tibiae with dark annulus (ring) in the middle, most expressed in the metaleg; apical two tarsomeres darkened dorsally. Pile on legs yellow, metatrochanter with a patch of short orange pile.

Abdomen. Broad and short, as long as mesonotum. Terga dark, shiny with metallic golden luster; without distinct pollinose fasciae; with adpressed golden to grayish-yellow pile, except triangular black pile areas in central parts of terga 2 and 3. Sterna shiny, covered with pale pile.

Genitalia. Anterior lobe of the surstylus absent; posterior lobe of surstylus extremely large with posterior margin straight, tip narrow; ventral margin strongly S-shaped with distinct convex part of the curve ( Fig. 10a); cercus rectangular, without prominences (as in Fig. 10a: ce). Hypandrium broad, curved; ctenidion situated subapically ( Fig. 10b). Aedeagal box well developed with bilobate apex, short and broad, 1/4 the length of the hypandrium ( Fig. 10b: ae).

Female.

Unknown.

Material examined. Holotype: FYR Macedonia: ♂, Skopje, Breznica, 24.v.2003, leg. Krpač V. ( FSUNS).

Type locality. FYR Macedonia, Skopje .

Distribution. Species distributed in the northern part of FYR Macedonia.

Etymology. The name of the species B vladimiri^ is dedicated to the legator of the holotype, Vladimir Krpač, Curator of the Macedonian Museum of Natural History, Skopje, FYR Macedonia.