New data on the<i>Merodon</i>Meigen 1803 fauna (Diptera: Syrphidae) of Turkey including description of a new species and changes in the nomenclatural status of several taxa

Journal of Apicultural Research

et al. 2013

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SummaryWorldwide, there is a well-documented crisis for bees and other pollinators which represent a fundamental biotic capital for wild life conservation, ecosystem function, and crop production. Among all pollinators of the world, bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) constitute the major group in species number and importance, followed by hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae). The Aegean constitutes one of the world's hotspots for wild bee and other pollinator diversity including flies (mainly hover flies and bee flies), beetles, and butterflies. Despite this advantage, our present knowledge on Greek pollinators is poor, due to a lack of focused and systematic research, absence of relevant taxonomic keys, and a general lack of taxonomic experts in the country. As a result, assessments of pollinator loss cannot be carried out and the causes for the potential pollinator loss in the country remain unknown. Consequently, the desperately needed National Red Data list for pollinators cannot be compiled. This new research (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) aims to contribute to the knowledge of the pollinator diversity in Greece, the threats pollinators face, as well as the impacts these threats may have on pollination services. The research is conducted in the Aegean archipelago on >20 islands and several mainland sites in Greece and Turkey. Prime goals are: i. the assessment of bee and hover fly diversity (species, genetic);ii. their pollination services; and iii. the effects of climate change, grazing, intensive bee-keeping, fires, electromagnetic radiation on bee diversity and ecology, as well as on plant-pollinator networks. At the same time, this research contributes to the taxonomic capital in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, focusing on the creation of the first identification keys for pollinators, the training of new scientists, as well as the enrichment and further development of the Melissotheque of the Aegean, a permanent reference collection of insect pollinators established at the

Section: In the Aegeanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating plant—pollinator relationships in the Aegean: the approaches of the project POL-AEGIS (The pollinators of the Aegean archipelago: diversity and threats)

Petanidou

Ståhls

Journal of Apicultural Research

et al. 2013

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“…; Popov ; Vujić et al. ; , in preparation). During the course of these studies and more recently as part of the POL‐AEGIS project (Petanidou et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), and the estimate of the species number for Turkey is expected to exceed 60 (Vujić et al. , unpubl. data).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeographic patterns of Merodon hoverflies in the Eastern Mediterranean region: revealing connections and barriers

Ståhls

Petanidou

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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We investigated the phylogeographic patterns of Merodon species (Diptera, Syrphidae) in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ten species were sampled on five different islands and mainland sites as a minimum. All samples were screened for their mtDNA COI barcode haplotype diversity, and for some samples, we additionally generated genomic fingerprints. The recently established zoogeographic distribution categories classify these species as having (1) Balkan distribution; (2) Anatolian distribution; (3) continental areas and large islands distribution; and (4) with wide distribution. The ancestral haplotypes and their geographical localities were estimated with statistical parsimony (TCS). TCS networks identified as the ancestral haplotype samples that originated from localities situated within the distributional category of the species in question. Strong geographical haplotype structuring was detected for many Merodon species. We were particularly interested to test the relative importance of current (Aegean Sea) and past Mid‐Aegean Trench) barriers to dispersal for Merodon flies in the Aegean. We employed phylogenetic β‐diversity (Pβ total) and its partition in replacement (Pβ repl) and richness difference (Pβ rich) to test the importance of each explanatory variable (interisland distance, MAT, and island area) in interisland differences using partial Mantel tests and hierarchical partitioning of variation. β‐Analyses confirmed the importance of both current and past barriers to dispersal on the evolution of group. Current interisland distance was particularly important to explain the replacement of haplotypes, while the MAT was driving differences in richness of haplotypes, revealing the MAT as a strong past barrier whose effects are still visible today in the phylogenetic history of the clade in the Aegean. These results support the hypothesis of a highly restricted dispersal and gene flow among Merodon populations between islands since late Pleistocene. Additionally, patterns of phylogeographic structure deduced from haplotype connections and ISSR genome fingerprinting data revealed a few putative cases of human‐mediated transfers of Merodon spp.

“…In the last decade, a number of papers have been published on particular species groups, such as aureus , melanocerus , nanus , natans , nigritarsis , ruficornis (Milankov et al 2008a, Francuski et al 2009, 2011, Vujić et al 2012, 2013, 2015, Šašić et al 2016, Radenković et al, 2018). The Mediterranean fauna has been frequently studied (Mengual et al 2006, Marcos-García et al 2007, 2011, Petanidou et al 2011, Radenković et al 2011, Ricarte et al 2012, Ståhls et al 2009, 2016, Vujić et al 2007, 2011), whereas the Afrotropical Region with less than ten recognised species (Pape and Thompson 2013), has received less attention (Radenković et al 2018). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revision of the Palaearctic species of the Merodon desuturinus group (Diptera, Syrphidae)

Radenković

Likov

2018

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This revision of material belonging to the Merodon desuturinus group from the Palaearctic Region resulted in the delimitation of four species: Merodon cabanerensis Marcos-García, Vujić & Mengual, 2007; Merodon desuturinus Vujić, Šimić & Radenković, 1995; Merodon neolydicus Vujić, nom. n.; and Merodon murorum Fabricius, 1794. Merodon murorum is redescribed. A neotype for Merodon auripilus Meigen, 1830 is designated, which is a new junior synonym of Merodon murorum. The related Afrotropical species Merodon cuthbertsoni Curran, 1939 is re-evaluated and compared to its sibling Palaearctic taxon Merodon desuturinus. An identification key for the Merodon desuturinus group is provided.