The early stages and breeding sites of four rare saproxylic hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) from Spain

Abstract

The puparial stage is described for each of four saproxylic hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae): Ferdinandea fumipennis Kassebeer, 1999, Mallota dusmeti Andréu, 1926, Myolepta difformis Strobl, 1909, and Myolepta obscura Becher, 1882. Early stages were collected at Cabañeros National Park in Ciudad Real province, central Spain. Mallota dusmeti, M. difformis, and M. obscura were found in water‐filled holes of live Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl. trees and the larva of F. fumipennis was found in a sap run on a live Quercus pyrenaica Wild. tree. Larvae were identified by rearing them to the adult stage. Puparia of these species possessed generic‐level characters found in congenerics. Apparent species‐level characters separating them from early stages of congenerics are proposed. The records reported here are the first for the Iberian Peninsula of M. obscura. Mallota dusmeti, M. difformis, and Myolepta obscura are extremely rare in Europe with M. dusmeti classed as “vulnerable” in the Spanish Invertebrate Red Data Book.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• immature stage
• Mediterranean ecosystem
• morphology
• sap‐run
• tree–hole

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the director and staff of the Cabañeros National Park. Financial support for this work was provided by the Spanish Ministerio de Medio Ambiente (MMA‐040/2002), the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CGL2005‐0713/BOS and grant number AP 2003‐4001), and Generalitat Valenciana (ACOMP06/063) 017609. Thanks to J. Ordóñez for helping with the figure plates.