Medetera meridionalis Negrobov, 1967

Kejval, Zbyněk & Pollet, Marc, 2023, The genus Medetera (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) in the Czech Republic with first records of twelve species, Zootaxa 5254 (1), pp. 69-93 : 84

Medetera meridionalis Negrobov, 1967

Distribution. Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Status in CZ. Previously recorded only from southern Moravia: Pálava ( Olejníček 1998) and Podyjí National Park (Havraníky, Nad Šobesem, Fládnická chata) ( Olejníček et al. 2005). There are three males and a female specimen corresponding with the above mentioned records deposited in NMPC (all examined); the two males from Pálava (Kotel, 25.vii.1995, J. Vaňhara lgt.) and Havraníky (1–24.vii.2002, Meixnerová lgt.) appear to be correctly identified, the third one from Nad Šobesem (2.vi.–2.vii.2003, M. Barták & Š. Kubík lgt.) belongs to M. jacula . The specimens from Fládnická chata were not found in NMPC nor CZUP.

Ecology. Southern species, in Russia occurring in open grass steppe areas lacking forests ( Negrobov 2010). In central Europe it may therefore be confined to drier steppe and forest-steppe habitats.

Remarks. Medetera meridionalis was synonymized with the widespread and common M. jacula (Fallén, 1823) by Grichanov (2002). However, its status was later discussed and the species re-instated as valid species by Negrobov (2010). The CZ specimens seem to match its characters. They differ from M. jacula in having only four pairs of long dorsocentral setae (anteriormost short dc completely lacking) and by some detailed characters of the male hypopygium; e.g., surstyli somewhat more straight and also more flattened distally, setae of hypandrial lobes rather long (distinctly exceeding midlength of surstyli), and ventral surstylar lobe with long, slender seta articulated more closely to spatulate apical seta. The specimens examined also feature a comparatively small clypeus, which is at most as long as the minimum width of the epistoma (= upper part of face), and partly bare/glossy at basal margin and in median line. These characters were omitted by Negrobov (2010), but the redescription by Negrobov & Stackelberg (1974) includes a similar observation: “Quernaht des Gesichts und unterer Teil des Clypeus metallisch glanzend.” On the contrary, M. jacula has a rather large clypeus (distinctly longer than width of epistoma) that is usually evenly pollinose and thus entirely dull, unless pollinosity is somewhat abraded.