
European Journal of Taxonomy
1062 (1) - Pages 1-33Two new species of the hoverfly genus Eristalinus Rondani, 1845 (Diptera: Syrphidae) are described from West Bengal, India, based on the adult morphology of both sexes and DNA barcode data. The new species, Eristalinus sapphirinus Roy, Naskar & Banerjee sp. nov., is characterized by its distinctive blueish black colouration, a strongly tapering head profile towards vertex in males, and the presence of an appendix on the loop formed by R4+5 wing vein. The second species, Eristalinus brunettii Roy, Naskar & Banerjee sp. nov., was initially collected as a morphologically divergent form resembling Eristalinus polychromata (Brunetti, 1923), but has now been confirmed as a separate species through integrative approaches. Phylogenetic analyses using Neighbour-Joining, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian methods, as well as species delimitation algorithms, consistently recover Eristalinus brunettii as a distinct evolutionary lineage. A brief diagnosis, description, distribution, images and barcodes for both new species are provided, along with a brief diagnosis and the first description of male terminalia for E. polychromata, and an updated taxonomic key to the Indian Eristalinus is presented.
Hoverfly, Eristalinae, taxonomy, barcoding, morphological variant, West Bengal