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Hi,
This Paragus male I watched in a garden in southern Brandenburg in August 2011. I know it is a difficult genus, but habitus and colouration match well with the pictures of P. pecchiolii in the gallery. The species is not listed for Brandenburg (http://www.orion-...liegen.pdf), so I am curious if my fly belongs to it nevertheless. Thanks for help!
Sundew

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More pics.

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Dear Sundew, P. pecchiolii is included in the Orion Diptera list of Berlin and Brandenburg possibly as P. majoranae. Who knows? Since Sommaggio (Sommaggio, D. (2002): Paragus gorgus Vujic & Radenkovic, 1999: a junior synonym of P. majoranae Rondani, 1857, and reinstatement of P. pecchiolii Rondani, 1857 (Diptera, Syrphidae) - Volucella 6, 53-56. Stuttgart.) stated that P. pecchiolii Rondani = P. majoranae auct. nec. Rondani there is no reliable information on the occurrence of both species P. pecchiolii and the real P. majoranae. In several cases P. majoranae seems to be dealed as a junior synonym of P. pecchiolii which is wrong. In addition to this confusion there are reasonable doubts that these are really two different species because of the high variability of genital structures.
Your specimen might belong to P. albifrons, P. majoranae or P. pecchiolii. Unfortunately this results at present in a Paragus sp.
Regards
Piet

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Dear Piet, thank you so much for the explanation of the difficult taxonomy. Unfortunately, unresolved systematics is more frequent than we would like. DNA sequencing might shed light on the situation. Afterwards morphologists will have to learn how to deal with the results... We love Paragus spec. nevertheless!