Meligramma species has scutum with a sharply defined yellow or withish yellow lateral vitta extending at least from postpronotum to transverse suture; postpronotum bare; anterior anepisternum bare; metasternum bare; metaepisternum bare ventrad to spiracle; subscutellar fringe complete, well-developed; abdomen without marginal sulcus; male genitalia small.
Adapted from Vockeroth (1992).
MALE.
Head: Face narrow, parallel-sided below, pale yellow, never with darker medial vitta. Frons pale or bright yellow, blackish on dorsal one-third in some specimens. Antenna short. Eye bare, holoptic.
Thorax: Scutum subshining black, with broad obscure or distinct yellow lateral margin; some specimens with pair of small submedial yellow maculae in front of scutellum. Pleura black, distinctly pruinose above, with extensive but obscure yellowish areas on dorsal two-thirds. Dorsal and ventral katepisternal pile patches broadly separated throughout. Metacoxa without pile at posteromedial apical angle.
Abdomen: Abdominal markings yellow to submetallic. Tergum 2 with pair ofsmall subtriangular yellow maculae not reaching margins; terga 3 and 4 each with pair of slightly larger yellow maculae not distinctly reaching lateral margins. Sterna with black fascia or with obscure lateral dark marks.
FEMALE.
Similar to male except as follows: frons black on dorsal one-third, otherwise yellow with narrow black medial vitta extending in some specimens to anterior margin; frons pollinose laterally; pollinose vitta extending narrowly to level of posterior ocelli. Scutum with two small yellow maculae or single large yellow macula in front of scutellum. Scutellum with some short black pile among longer yellow pile on disc. Yellow maculae on terga 2-4 small, well-separated; maculae on tergum 2 far from anterior margin of tergum; only maculae on tergum 4 reaching lateral margin of tergum in some specimens.
Meligramma guttata (Fallen, 1817).
Fallen, C.F. (1816-1817) Syrphici Sveciae. Pp. 1-14 [1816.06.08], 15-22 [1816.06.08], 23-30 [1817.05.10], 31-42 [1817.05.20], 43-54 [1817.05.21], 55-62. [1817.05.22] Berlingianis, Lundae [= Lund].
Synonyms:
Syrphus savtshenkoi Violovitsh, 1965: 11.
Scaeva guttata Fallen, 1817: 44.
Xanthogramma habilis Snow, 1895: 238.
Sphaerophoria interrupta Jones, 1917: 225.
Melangyna sajanica Violovitsh, 1975: 75.
Syrphus flavifrons Verrall, 1873: 256.
GenBank accession number for this species are: protein-coding COI gene (EF501960; FJ763735) and rRNA 28S gene (EF501968).
In the field, the male of this species appears almost identical to males of the common and widespreadPlatycheirus species, P.albimanus (Fab.) and P.scutatus (Mg.), and is probably frequently overlooked for this reason (Speight 2010).
Body lenght: 7.6-9.6 mm (Vockeroth 1992).
Dusek and Laska (1967) gave Meligramma full generic status. Meligramma was reduced to a subgenus of Melangyna by Vockeroth (1969) and World Catalogues followed him, but larval characters did not support a sister group relationship between them. Rotheray and Gilbert resolved Meligramma as a sister group of Epistrophella in 1989, with Epistrophe and Parasyrphus as the closest taxa. In 1999, Rotheray and Gilbert found a similar result, Meligramma as a sister group of Epistrophella, but the sister groups were Xanthogramma and Doros, placing Epistrophe as the sister group of all of them.
Mengual et al. (2008) reported Meligramma as monophyletic and sister group of Fagisyrphus, being Dasysyrphus the sister group of both. These results supported the idea of Dusek and Laska (1967) resolving Fagisyrphus as sister to Meligramma and the generic status for Fagisyrphus.
Flowers visited by adults: white umbellifers; Epilobium angustifolium, Euonymus, Filipendula, Frangula alnus, Galium, Solidago (Speight 2010).
Larvae reported feeding on Drepanosiphum platanoidis (Aphididae) (Dixon 1960).
The flight period of M. guttata in Europe is from mid June to mid August (Speight 2010).
Holarctic species with broad distribution. In the Palaearctic, from Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees; from Ireland eastwards through much of northern and central Europe into Russia and on through Siberia to the Pacific coast (Sakhalin) (Speight 2010). In the Nearctic, from Alaska to British Columbia, Alberta, south to Arizona and New Mexico (Thompson 2010).
Adult inhabit primarily arboreal, but descends to visit flowers (Speight 2010).
Adults' preferred environment: humid deciduous forest, particularly along rivers; field hedges with mature Fraxinus; mature Salix/Alnus carr; alluvial hardwood forest (Speight 2010).
Larva (from Dixon (1960), from larvae collected on Acer pseudoplatanus).
Length 9 mm., width 2.5 mm., height 1 mm.; black; extremely flattened; transverae wrinkles deep; three pairs of lateral fleshy lobes and one pair median dorsal prominences on segments 5-11 and 4-11, respectively, all bearing segmental hairs; prolegs and claws absent ; integumental vestiture absent; body papillose; segmental ornamentation typical, twelve hairs on segments 4-11 and two on segment 12. Posterior respiratory process: twice as long as broad at the base, apex one-third width of base, sides of just less than apical half parallel; entirely sclerotized; black; walls entirely covered with nodules; spiracular plates smooth; circular plates anterior, towards median groove, sloping upwards towards dorsal spurs; dorsal spurs triangular, obtuse; interspiracular ornamentation of four pairs of setae each mounted on a nodule; straight spiracles mounted on smooth, high, rounded well developed carinae; angle between spiracles I and III less than 180°, II closer to III than to I.
unless otherwise stated