European Journal of Taxonomy
1064 (1) - Pages 1-21The hoverfly genus Pipizella Rondani, 1856 (Diptera: Syrphidae: Pipizinae) is represented by three species in Finland, the widespread Palaearctic species Pipizella viduata (Linnaeus, 1758), and two rare Palaearctic species, Pipizella certa Violovitsh, 1981 and Pipizella obscura van Steenis & Lucas, 2011. Hitherto, species identification of Finnish Pipizella spp. was feasible only for the male sex using morphological characteristics of the male genitalia. This study focussed on identifying candidate female specimens of P. certa and P. obscura using morphological hypotheses. We generated mtDNA COI barcodes for males and females of selected Pipizella specimens. The barcoding results corroborated the employed morphological hypotheses by linking the unknown female sex with the correct male species identity. The hitherto unknown females of P. certa and P. obscura are here morphologically described for the first time. We provide and clarify diagnostic characters to separate both sexes of the three Pipizella species occurring in Finland. We provide the first DNA barcode sequences for both sexes of P. obscura.
