New record of Cepa apeca (Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalinae, Merodontini) in the Andean-Amazonian region of Colombia and expansion of its geographic range

Abstract

Flower flies of the genus Cepa are endemic to the Neotropical region and Cepa apeca is currently known only from Costa Rica. Here we report the first record of C. apeca in Colombia based on a single female collected using a canopy trap in a dense secondary forest in a mountainous ecosystem in the locality of Vereda San Francisco, municipality of Florencia-Caquetá, at an altitude of 643 m.a.s.l. This finding constitutes the first record of the genus Cepa in Colombia and expands the geographic range of Cepa apeca by approximately 1,500 km (straight line) southwards to South America. Our finding represents the southernmost occurrence of the species and contributes to the incipient knowledge on the Diptera diversity in the Colombian Andean-Amazonian region.