Pipizella siciliana Nielsen and Torp

Pipizella siciliana Nielsen and Torp #

Material examined. Leg. A. Ricarte: 2♂ and 1♀, meadow along Moreda valley, 720 m, 24.v.2012 (1♂), 28.v.2012 (1♂), 29.v.2012 (♀) [NMS]; 1♂, Moreda valley, near Aula Naturaleza, Castanea sativa souto, 720 m, 23.v.2012 [CEUA]. Leg. E.G. Hancock: 2♂ and 1♀, nr Moreda, swept by river (2♂), meadow by woodland edge (♀), 23−28.v.2012 [HM]. Leg. R.M. Lyszkowski: 1♂, Field station, 620 m, 22.v.2012 [RL]. Leg. S.M. Hewitt: 1♂, Moreda valley meadows, 25.v.2012 [CALMG].

Taxonomic notes. To identify this species, male paratypes of P. siciliana and P. thapsiana Kassebeer, 1995 were examined at FSUNS. The data on the labels of these paratypes were as follow: 1♂, ‘ Italia, Sicilia, Taormina, 16-4-1973, Tore Nielsen leg’ / ‘ Pipizella siciliana ♂ Nielsen-Pedersen 1973, PARATYPE, T. Nielsen design.’ (handwritten on a red label); 1♂, ‘ Marokko /Marakech Ouirgane 1000 m, 27.4.1994, leg. C. Kassebeer’ / ‘ PARATYPE Pipizella thapsiana Kassebeer 1994 ’.

In lateral view, the surstylus of the males from Courel was most similar to that in P. siciliana. However, the apical part of the surstylus did not taper in males from Courel as abruptly as that in the studied paratype of P. siciliana [compare Fig. 6 in the present paper with Vujić (1997): Fig. 8]. The shape of the surstylus in the similar Pipizella zloti Vujić, 1997 is also somewhat variable (Vujić 1997). In dorsal view, the surstylus of the males from Courel was virtually same as those in the examined paratypes of both P. siciliana and P. thapsiana. In the Iberian Peninsula P. thapsiana is recorded from the southern half of Portugal (van Eck 2011).

Females of most Pipizella species cannot be identified. The female we obtained is probably P. s i c i l i a na because of the morphological similarities with the males and also because it was found at the same site as two of the three males.