On the identity of the Afrotropical species of Mallota Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae)
Abstract
The Afrotropical hoverflies belonging to the genus Mallota Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Syrphidae) are revised. Ten species are recognized, of which four are new to science: Mallota glabra sp. nov., M. hircus sp. nov., M. wyatti sp. nov. and M. stipulata sp. nov. Merodon edentulus Macquart, 1855 is considered a junior synonym of Eristalis dasyops Wiedemann, 1819. Lectotypes are designated for Eristalis dasyops, Merodon edentulus, Mallota pachymera Bezzi, 1915 and Helophilus extremus Loew, 1858. The taxonomic history of the placement and identity of the different species of Mallota is presented. Their relationships, as well as affiliations with Afrotropical representatives of the genera Eristalis Latreille, 1804 and Myathropa Rondani, 1845, is briefly discussed based on morphological and DNA barcode data.
References
Bezzi M. 1912. Ditteri raccolti da Leonardo Fea durante il suo viaggio nell‘Africa occidentale. Parte la: Syrphidae. Annali dei Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova, Serie 3a 45: 400–443. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10812452 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Bezzi M. 1915. The Syrphidae of the Ethiopian region based on Material in the Collection of the British Museum (Natural history), with Descriptions of New Genera and Species. British Museum (Natural History), London. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.10351
Bigot J.M.F. 1891. Voyage de M. Ch. Alluaud dans le territoire d’Assinie 8e mémoire (Afrique occidentale) en juillet et août 1886. Annales de la Société entomologique de France 60: 365–386. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32547727 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Brecko J., Mathys A., Dekoninck W., Leponce M., VandenSpiegel D. & Semal P. 2014. Focus stacking: Comparing commercial top-end set-ups with a semi-automatic low budget approach. A possible solution for mass digitization of type specimens. ZooKeys 464: 1–23. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.464.8615
Curran C.H. 1927. Diptera of the American Museum Congo Expedition. Part 1.–Bibionidae, Bombyliidae, Dolichopodidae, Syrphidae and Trypaneidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 57: 33–89. Available from http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1640 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Curran C.H. 1929. Nineteen new Diptera from Africa. American Museum Novitates 340: 1–15. Available from http://hdl.handle.net/2246/3117 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Curran C.H. 1939a. Records and descriptions of African Syrphidae III (Diptera). American Museum Novitates 1025: 1–11. Available from http://hdl.handle.net/2246/2217 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Curran C.H. 1939b. Records and descriptions of African Syrphidae IV (Diptera). American Museum Novitates 1026: 1–10. Available from http://hdl.handle.net/2246/2218 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
De Meyer M. 2001. Biogeography, diversity and seasonality of Syrphidae (Diptera) in a Guineo-Congolian rain forest in Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History 90: 87–101. https://doi.org/10.2982/0012-8317(2001)90[87:BDASOS]2.0.CO;2
De Meyer M., Van den Berghe E. & Whittington A.E. 1995. Specimen database Syrphidae (Diptera) of East Africa. Centre for Biodiversity Research Reports, Biodiversity Database 1: 1–11.
De Meyer M., Goergen G. & Jordaens K. 2020a. Taxonomic revision of the Afrotropical Phytomia Guérin-Méneville (Diptera: Syrphidae). Zootaxa 4803: 201–250. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4803.2.1
De Meyer M., Goergen G. & Jordaens K. 2020b. Taxonomic revision of the Afrotropical Senaspis Macquart (Diptera: Syrphidae). ZooKeys 1003: 83–160. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1003.56557
Denner F. 2017. Type specimens of Syrphidae (Insecta: Diptera) in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. Serie B für Botanik und Zoologie 119: 55– 166.
Dirickx H.G. 1989. Catalogue Synonymique et Géographique des Syrphidae (Diptera) de la Région Afrotropicale. Instrumenta Biodiversitatis II, Muséum d’ Histoire Naturelle, Genève.
Hull F.M. 1941. A study of syrphid flies from Madagascar (Diptera). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 92: 309–334.
Hull F.M. 1949. The morphology and inter-relationship of the genera of syrphid flies. Recent and fossil. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 26: 257–408. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1949.tb00224.x
Inouye D., Larson B.M.H., Ssymank A. & Kevan P.G. 2015. Flies and flowers III: Ecology of foraging and pollination. Journal of Pollination Ecology 16: 115–133. https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2015)15
Jordaens K., Goergen G., Virgilio M., Backeljau T., Vokaer A. & De Meyer M. 2015. DNA barcoding to improve the taxonomy of the Afrotropical hoverflies (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae). PLoS ONE 10: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140264
Jordaens K., Goergen G., Skevington J. H., Kelso S. & De Meyer M. 2021. Morphological and molecular revision of the Afrotropical species of the hover fly genus Mesembrius Rondani (Diptera: Syrphidae). ZooKeys 1046: 1–141. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1046.57052
Kertész K. 1910. Catalogus Dipterorum hucusque descriptorum, Vol. VII. G. Engelmann, Budapest [Budapestini]. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.5147
Kirk-Spriggs A.H. & Sinclair B.J. (eds) 2017. Manual of Afrotropical Diptera, Vol. 1. SANBI, Pretoria.
Loew H. 1858. Bidrag till kännedomen om Afrikas Diptera. Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-akademiens Forhandlingar 14 (1857): 337–383. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43967181 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Loew H. 1860. Die Dipteren-Fauna Südafrika’s. Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins für Sachsen und Thüringen in Halle 2: 57–402. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.8553
Macquart J. 1855. Diptères exotiques nouveaux ou peu connus. 5.e Supplément. Mémoires de la Société des Sciences, de l’Agriculture et des Arts à Lille 1854: 25–156. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3484255 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Meigen J.W. 1822. Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europäischen zweiflügligen Insekten, Vol. 3. Schultz-Wundermann'schen Buchhandlung, Hamm. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.12464
Morales M.N. 2011. Filogenia da Tribo Eristalini (Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalinae) Inferida por Caracteres morfologicos. PhD thesis, Federal University of Parana, Brasil.
Saitou N. & Nei M. 1987. The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Molecular Biology and Evolution 4: 406–425.
Shiraki T. 1930. Die Syrphiden des japanischen Kaiserreichs, mit Berücksichtigung benachbarter Gebiete. Memoirs of the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Taihoku Imperial University 1: 1–446.
Skevington J.H., Locke M.M., Young A.D., Moran K., Crins W.J. & Marshall S.A. 2019. Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv7xbrvz
Smith K.G.V. & Vockeroth J.R. 1980. Family Syrphidae. In: Crosskey R.W. (ed.) Catalogue of the Diptera of the Afrotropical Region: 488–510. British Museum (Natural History), London. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/62053111 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Sommaggio D. 1999. Syrphidae: can they be used as environmental bioindicators? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 74: 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-50019-9.50019-4
Ssymank A., Jordaens K., De Meyer M., Reemer M. & Rotheray G.E. 2021. Syrphidae 60 (flower flies or hoverflies). In: Kirk-Spriggs A.H. & Sinclair B.J. (eds) Manual of Afrotropical Diptera, Vol. 3: 1439–1491. SANBI, Pretoria.
Stubbs A.E. & Falk S.J. 2002. British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide. 2nd Edition. British Entomological and Natural History Society, Reading.
Tamura K., Stecher G. & Kumar S. 2021. MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38: 3022–3027. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab120
Thompson F.C. 1999. A key to the genera of the flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) of the Neotropical Region including descriptions of new genera and species and a glossary of taxonomic terms used. Contributions on Entomology, International 3: 322–378. Available from https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/17492 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Van Veen M.P. 2010. Hoverflies of Northwest Europe: Identification Keys to the Syrphidae. Brill, KNNV Publishing Zeist.
Vujić A., Radenković S., Šašić Zorić L., Likov L., Tot T., Veselić S. & Djan M. 2021. Revision of the Merodon bombiformis group (Diptera: Syrphidae) – rare and endemic African hoverflies. European Journal of Taxonomy 755: 88–135. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2021.755.1401
Whittington A.E. 2003. The Afrotropical Syrphidae fauna: an assessment. Studia Dipterologica 20 : 579–607.
Wiedemann C.R.W. 1819. Beschreibung neuer Zweiflügler aus Ostindien und Afrika. Zoologisches Magazin 1: 1–39. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14928704 [accessed 9 Sep. 2024].
Copyright (c) 2024 Marc De Meyer, Georg Goergen, John Midgley, Kurt Jordaens
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Copyright Notices
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are NOT ALLOWED TO post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to taxonomic issues.
