High Phenotypic Diversity Does Not Always Hide Taxonomic Diversity: A Study Case with Cheilosia soror (Zetterstedt, 1843) (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Comprising nearly 500 species worldwide, Cheilosia Meigen is the largest genus of Syrphidae in the Palaearctic region. Within Cheilosia, phenotypic diversity has been assessed in different species groups, including the group of Cheilosia longula (Zetterstedt, 1838). However, the phenotypic variability of Cheilosia soror (Zetterstedt, 1843), a highly variable member of the C. longula group, has never been assessed in western Europe. In the present work, morphological and molecular analyses were conducted to assess the phenotypic variability found in 300+ specimens of C. soror from the Iberian Peninsula. A total of 16 variable characters were identified and defined for the C. soror morphology, with the highest variation found in the colour of the mesonotum pilosity and the metatibia colour. Morphological variation was assessed against molecular variation based on two molecular markers, one mitochondrial, the 5 ′ end of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI-5 ′ ), and one nuclear, the large subunit ribosomal DNA (28S). Phylogenetic analyses rendered trees with topologies in disagreement with the defined morphological variation. Two haplotypes were identified amongst the analysed specimens of C. soror, together with a haplotypic variant exclusive to the Iberian region. Potential distributions were used to identify unexplored areas of occurrence of C. soror and other species of the C. longula group in the Iberian Peninsula. Unassessed areas of occurrence of C. soror should be surveyed in the future to confirm the absence of hidden taxonomic diversity within the range of phenotypic variation for this species. Phenotypic variation of the other two Iberian species of the C. longula group, C. longula and C. scutellata (Fallén, 1817), was also assessed to find that they are species with less-variable morphology than C. soror and with molecular characters in accordance with other conspecific populations in Europe. New distributional data are provided for C. soror and C. scutellata from Spain, and a leg abnormality is identified for the first time in C. soror.