Merodon avidus (Rossi)

Puparium description. Dimensions and shape. Length: 9.7 mm, width: 4.7 mm, height: 4.7 mm (n=2); subcylindrical; anterior end truncate, slightly tapering posteriorly and flattened Ventrally; dark brown in colour; rough integument with larVal segmentation persisting as transVerse folds and wrinkles.

Cephalopharyngeal skeleton (n=3). Mandibles with black sclerotised hooks and blunt apex, without accessory teeth, fused to the external mandibular lobes; the mouth hooks separated at the apex by a distance wider than or equal as their basal width; the dorsal cornu tapered towards the apex, shark’s fin shaped, representing two thirds of the whole length of the Ventral cornu; clipeal sclerite and tentorium slightly sclerotised and separated from the highly sclerotised intermediate sclerites; Ventral cornu elongated and narrow in profile View, with the cibarium at the base (Fig. 1B).

Pupal spiracles. Sclerotised, blackish-brown in colour, stout, cylindrical in shape, gradually tapering and pointed at the end; length ≈ 0.4 mm (length: width ratio of spiracle 1.5:1); separated by a distance of 4× their length; surface of the spiracle with a polygonal pattern (Fig. 2C); dorsal surface facing toward the lateral margins of the puparium and with the distal one-fifth slightly curVed backwards; about 60% of the dorsal and lateral surface coVered with irregularly-spaced, oVal-shaped tubercles; tubercle composed of two layers; 5–6 radially-arranged spiracular openings on each tubercle.

Prp. Blackish-brown, sub-elliptical in cross-section, extremely short (not Visible from dorsal View); spiracular plate of prp with four pairs of sinuous spiracular openings around two central scars (Fig. 3D); four pairs of interspiracular setae emerging from the edge of the spiracular plate.

Examined material. Đerdap National Park, Serbia (44° 32 ' 38"N, 22°01'08"E), leg. J. PreradoVić: 2 puparia in the ground near bulbs of Ornithogalum umbellatum, Viii.2015 and xi.2015 (P2 and P 5 in FSUNS); 1 puparium on the ground close to O. umbellatum plants, Viii.2015 (P 3 in FSUNS); 1 puparium in the ground near bulbs of O. umbellatum, 29.V.2016, ♂ emerged on 8.Vi. 2016 (P 6 in FSUNS).