Epistrophe nitidicollis (Meigen, 1822):308

Epistrophe species usually have dorsal and ventral pile patches of the katepisternum narrowly joined posteriorly and tergum 4th with a yellow fascia, or with linear grey maculae or entirely black.

Epistrophe nitidicollis (Meigen, 1822).

Meigen, J.W. (1822) Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zweiflugeligen Insekten. Dritter Theil. Schulz-Wundermann, Hamm. x + 416 pp., pls. 22-32.

Synonyms:

Syrphus nitidicollis Meigen, 1822;308.

Syrphus protritus Osten Sacken, 1877:328.

Stenosyrphus hunteri Curran, 1925:171.

Adapted from Vockeroth (1992):

MALE.

Head: Frontal triangle with upper one-third to half pollinose, pale yellow to almost black; lower two-thirds to half of frontal triangle shining, yellow or extensively brown to black with only narrow anterior margin yellowish. Face yellow. Antenna yellow-orange;scape brown above in some specimens.

Thorax: Scutellar hairs almost all black. Metasternum bare. Wing membrane bare in most of basal half of cell R, about middle half of cell bm except posteriorly, and in narrow strip behind CuP. Procoxa brown to black; meso- and metacoxae black; latter with only yellow pile. Femora entirely yellow or pro- and mesofemora obscurely or distinctly brown on about basal one-fifth and metafemur brown on up to basal one-third.

Abdomen: 2nd tergum with yellow maculae only slightly broadened laterally over most of their width, abruptly broadened near margin, and extending over anterior two-thirds of margin; terga 3 and 4 with yellow fascia scarcely emarginate posteriorly and only slightly narrowed laterally; tergum 4 narrowly yellow posteriorly; margins of terga 2-4 alternately black and yellow. Sterna with yellow pili.

FEMALE.

Frons mostly shining to subshining black, narrowly yellow-gray pollinose laterally on lower two-thirds, narrowly yellow anteriorly. Tergum 2 with yellow maculae well-separated from anterior margin over most of their width, strongly broadened near margin. Sterna 3 and 4 with suberect yellow hairs, with some short appressed black hairs in some specimens.

GenBank accession number for this species are: protein-coding COI gene (EF127325), rRNA 28S gene (EF127406).

Body length. 9.3-13.0 mm.

Epistrophe is a very diverse genus in adult morphology. Although the adults are similar to Syrphus, they have completely different larval morphology. The cladistic analyses of Rotheray and Gilbert (1989) placed Epistrophe with Epistrophella, and Meligramma together with Parasyrphus or with Xanthogramma and Doros (Rotheray and Gilbert, 1999). Fluke (1950) transferred species from Epistrophe to Stenosyrphus (junior synonym of Melangyna) and placed Epistrophe as subgenus of Syrphus. Wirth et al. (1965) recognized Epistrophe as a separate genus from Stenosyrphus. Dusek and Laska (1967) followed Wirth et al. (1965) and created a new genus for Syrphus euchromus Kowarz, 1885, Epistrophella.

Vockeroth (1969) indicated the unusual variation in thoracic and abdominal markings of Epistrophe and suggested to use the two subgenera: Epistrophe s.s. and Epistrophella. The analyses of larval morphology guided Rotheray and Gilbert to synonymize Epistrophella under Meligramma. Results by Mengual et al. (2008) suggested that Epistrophella is close to Xanthogramma, in agreement with larval evidence (Rotheray and Gilbert, 1999), close to the clade of Epistrophe but not placed in the same clade with Meligramma. This molecular analysis also indicated that Allograpta is not related with Epistrophe as suggested by Hull (1949) who could not find any valid distinctions except upon the abdominal pattern, and the relationship between Meligramma and Epistrophe is not close as larval evidence suggests.

Larvae of E. nitidicollis feed on aphids (Aphididae). Laska & Stary (1980) found larvae on Euonymus, Malus, Prunus and Sambucus nigra. Mazánek et al (2001) also report finding the larvae on Acer pseudoplatanus, Cerasus avium, Carduus, Rubus idaeus and Spirea (Speight 2010).

Adults visit flowers of white umbellifers; Caltha, Cistus, Euphorbia, Prunus, Ranunculus, Rubus, Taraxacum (Speight 2010).

The flight period for Palaearctic specimens of E. nitidicollis is May/June (April in southern Europe) and on into July at higher altitudes/ more northerly latitudes (Speight 2010).

Holarctic species with a very broad range. In America from Alaska, south to California, Utah, Maryland, and South Carolina; in Europe from Finland, Sweden and Norway, south to Spain and Italy. Also present in Uk and Ireland. Cited from Asia (Vockeroth 1992).

Preferred environment: deciduous forest, scrub and macquis. Adult habitat and habits: largely arboreal, descending to visit flowers (Speight 2010).

Egg (from Chandler 1968):

Chalk-white, greying slightly on development; mean length 1113 µ (n = 54, range 1040-1240 µ), mean width 427 µ; egg tapering strongly towards one end; surface patterning comprising an upraised latticework with the interstitial panels angular and strongly indented. Chorionic sculpturing: very sharply demarcated groups of dots and rods both dorsally and ventrally with thin strands around the periphery.
Ecological notes. Frequent; eggs found from May to July, notably in association with Aphis spp. on a variety of plants; laid singly.

Third instar larva (from Dixon 1960):

Length 11-13 mm., width 4-5 mm., height 1-52 mm.; bright pea green to apple green turning brownish green during diapause, uniformly flecked with white, and with a median domd white or cream stripe; unusually flattened, ovate from above, dorsally convex; ventral sole broad and flat; first three segments ventral in resting position; integumental vestiture absen ; body papillose; segmental hairs typical ; four conical lateral prominences visible from above; first, third and fourth prominences on the same plane; first, second and third prominenoes bearing segmental hairs; median segmental hairs also mounted on small conical prominences. Posterior respiratory process: one and a half times as long as width at the base; pale, nodular; base one and a half times as broad as apex; basal region tapering to a wide constriction two-thirds along the length, thereafter process widening to apex; dorsal spurs prominent; interspiracular ornamentation lamellate and well developed; spiracles straight, equidistant, raised on slight carinae, I and III diverging by 180°.