Biodiversity Data Journal : Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Data Paper (Biosciences)
Hoverflies of the Timon-David collection (Diptera, Syrphidae)
expand article infoGabriel Nève‡,§,|,¶,#, Xavier Lair¤, Thomas Lebard«, Jean-Yves Meunier‡,¶,|,§,#, Louis-Jean Teste», Louise Séguinel»
‡ IMBE, Marseille, France
§ Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France
| CNRS, Marseille, France
¶ IRD, Marseille, France
# Avignon University, Avignon, France
¤ Independent Researcher, Sournia, France
« Independent Researcher, Breil-sur-Roya, France
» MHNM, Marseille, France
Corresponding author: Gabriel Nève (gabriel.neve@imbe.fr)
Academic editor: Adrien Perrard
Received: 12 Dec 2023 | Accepted: 30 Jan 2024 | Published: 19 Feb 2024
© 2024 Gabriel Nève, Xavier Lair, Thomas Lebard, Jean-Yves Meunier, Louis-Jean Teste, Louise Séguinel
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Nève G, Lair X, Lebard T, Meunier J-Y, Teste L-J, Séguinel L (2024) Hoverflies of the Timon-David collection (Diptera, Syrphidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e117265. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e117265
 Open Access

Abstract

Background

Hoverflies are among the most important insect pollinators and there is documented evidence of a recent decline in their populations. To trace the past distributions of hoverfly species, verified records of historical collections are essential.

New information

Here, we provide data on 1071 specimens of hoverflies collected or received by Jean Timon-David and hosted at the Marseille Natural History Museum, France. Most of the specimens were collected by Timon-David himself and come from south-eastern France, mainly from the Departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Hautes-Alpes. Most of these specimens were checked for the accuracy of their identification according to the latest identification keys. This resulted in 85 additions to the known fauna of the French Departments, mostly for Var and Bouches-du-Rhône. The taxonomy of all specimens was checked against the latest available checklists and updated names added whenever necessary. Specimens received from entomologists working in other continents may also be valuable, as these are historic testimonies of the fauna of their own respective regions of origin and may, therefore, also be used as reference material. One paratype specimen from Australia is present in the collection. The holotype of Cheilosia vangaveri Timon-David, 1937 is absent from the collection and should be considered as lost. All but two of the specimens with locality labels had their geographical coordinates of origin added in the dataset.

Keywords

Jean Timon-David, Museum collection, distribution, France, Diptera, Syrphidae, pollinators

Introduction

Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) are known to be among the most important pollinators of flowering plants, along with Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera (Ssymank et al. 2008, Chisausky et al. 2020). The documentation of past distribution concerning these insects relies on existing collections, where the identification of specimens can be checked, in order to document changes in the distribution and relative abundance of the various species.

The aim of the present paper is to record the important hoverfly collection hosted at the Marseille Natural History Museum, contributing to the endeavour to document the past distribution of pollinators in France (Meunier et al. 2023, Zakardjian et al. 2023).

Historical background

Jean Timon-David (Fig. 1) was born in Marseille on 3 September 1902 and died there on 20 November 1968 (Nicoli and Timon-David 1973). As a professor of zoology and parasitology, Timon-David was described by one of his former students as a short and shy man whose lectures showed a wide and deep knowledge of his subject (M.-T. Cordier, pers. comm. 2020). He was both a conscientious researcher and a dedicated teacher, much loved by his students (Dollfus 1969). His reserved personality may explain why his academic career was slow: Jean Timon-David was both a doctor of medicine (at Montpellier in 1926) and a doctor of science (at Sorbonne in 1930). He was appointed Head of Zoology, Faculté des Sciences de Marseille, at the age of 35, Senior Lecturer at 50 and full Professor of Zoology at 58. It seems that his shy temperament did him a disservice in his career development. On the other hand, his great scientific skills were recognised in scientific circles: he was Officier d'Académie, Officier de l'Instruction Publique and Chevalier du Mérite Agricole (Nicoli and Timon-David 1973). In entomological circles, he was internationally recognised by his peers. Hull (1973) mentions “the late Professor J. Timon-David of Marseille” in his acknowledgements at the beginning of his monograph of the Bombylidae of the world alongside some the best known dipterists of the XXth century “Dr. Willi Hennig [1913-1976], Dr. Erwin Lindner [1888-1988] and the late Professor Fred Keiser [1895-1969]”. In addition to entomology, Jean Timon-David's work covered geology, biochemistry (his doctoral thesis was on insect fats), ichthyology, ornithology and, above all, parasitology. A tribute to his research in parasitology was published in 1968 in the Annales de Parasitologie (Dollfus 1968) and a scientific biography with a full bibliography was published in 1973 (Nicoli and Timon-David 1973).

Figure 1.  

Portrait of Jean Timon-David (photograph supplied by Pierre Timon-David).

Jean Timon-David’s contribution to entomology

Jean Timon-David collected insects, mainly Diptera and Hymenoptera, from 1926 to 1961, and published pioneering research on the Diptera of the Mediterranean islands off the French coast (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929a, Timon-David 1940Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929a, Timon-David 1940, Timon-David 1961), the high Alps (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929b, Timon-David 1931, Timon-David 1937a, Timon-David 1937b), the Pyrenees (Timon-David 1949, Timon-David 1950) and the Sainte-Baume Massif (Timon-David 1936, Timon-David 1958). He also revised Diptera material from Morocco (Timon-David 1951a). Timon-David was a recognised specialist of Asilidae (Diptera) and his collection includes 18 boxes of material belonging to this family, with specimens from 13 different countries, including one box from the agricultural station at Boukoko (Oubangi-Chari, Central African Republic). He published an important series of revisions on the Asilidae of Madagascar (Timon-David 1951b, Timon-David 1952, Timon-David 1953a, Timon-David 1953b), with the description of several new species. One species of Asilidae from the Camargue was dedicated to him: Heteropogon timondavidi Tsacas 1970.

Indirectly, the labels of the specimens in his Syrphidae collection also show the regular contact he had with his foreign colleagues. For example, Ralph Leonard Coe (British Museum (Natural History)) identified some of his specimens. Timon-David received specimens from Charles Rungs (four Moroccan specimens), Frank M. Hull (U.S.A.), H.L. Lopes (Brazil), L. Richter (Colombia) and Edgar F. Riek (Australia).

As Nicoli and Timon-David (1973) point out, Jean Timon-David's collections from around Marseille date from a time when these areas were not yet fully urbanised. Thus, examination of this particular collection is a great opportunity for researchers to open a window into the past of this region which has since then been totally transformed and gives precious information about its environment which cannot be obtained by any other means.

General description

Purpose: 

The aim of this publication is to record all of the Syrphidae specimens hosted in the Timon-David collection at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Marseille (MHNM).

We also want to raise awareness of the entomological work of Jean Timon-David, whose publications, in French, were often in regional journals or conference proceedings and, therefore, difficult to access. In their recent synthesis of the Syrphid fauna of France, Speight et al. (2018) cite only one of Timon-David's publications, that of 1937 which contains the original description of Cheilosia vangaveri (Timon-David, 1937), named in honour of Ferdinand Van Gaver (1874-1943), the only colleague with whom Timon-David published on Syrphidae (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1928, Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929a, Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929b). A signed reprint of one of their joint publications (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1937) was given to the University Library (Fig. 2).

Figure 2.  

Signatures of Jean Timon-David and Ferdinand Van Gaver on the cover of their joint 1937 publication (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1937), now in the Saint-Charles University Library, Aix Marseille University.

The entomological collection of Jean Timon-David was given to the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille in 2006 by his son Pierre Timon-David. It contains a total of 114 boxes, including about ten thousand specimens. The aim of the present paper is to publish all the data on Syrphidae from this collection as a tribute to Jean Timon-David’s outstanding work in entomology.

The identification of most specimens from France has been checked recently and the taxonomy of the whole collection has been brought up-to-date.

Project description

Title: 

Timon-David collection of Syrphidae (Diptera)

Sampling methods

Description: 

All available data on the 1071 hoverfly specimens present in the Timon-David collection in the Natural History Museum in Marseille were input in table format and made available on Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10362019). Labels of specimens collected by Jean Timon-David were always hand-written and usually mention the locality and a date, sometimes with the plant name on which the specimen was collected (Fig. 3). Jean Timon-David never put his own name on the specimen labels.

Figure 3.  

Examples of labels from the Timon-David Collection. A: specimen MHNM.15441.47.135, collected at Vallon de St-Pons, Gemenos, Bouches-du-Rhône, now identified as Eupeodes luniger; B: specimen MHNM.15441.48.111, collected on the edge of the Ste Baume forest, Plan-d'Aups, Var, on Heracleum sphondylium, identification as Mallota cimbiciformis confirmed in 2020; C: specimen MHNM.15441.40.1, collected in Ste Baume forest, Plan-d'Aups, Var, now identified as Myolepta dubia; D: specimen MHNM.15441.43.117, collected at Bret, Le Tholonet, Bouches-du-Rhône, on Hedera helix ("sur le lierre"), now identified as Merodon legionensis.

For most of the specimens, their identification was checked by Gabriel Nève (GN), Xavier Lair (XL) and Thomas Lebard (TL) and this is mentioned with the value 1 in the identificationVerificationStatus column, which is otherwise coded 0 for unchecked material. All label data from the Syrphidae specimens were input and most of the French specimens were re-identified according to recent revisions (e.g. Speight and Sarthou 2017, Speight and Langlois 2020, Speight et al. 2021). Latitudes and longitudes of all data from France were input using the topographical maps on the www.geoportail.gouv.fr website or printed 1/25000 maps of the studied areas. Data with label localities which corresponded to municipalities were input on the locality’s centroid in latitude and longitude columns and their estimated uncertainty value (coordinateUncertaintyValue column) was set at 5000 metres. Data with more precise names were identified and input with an estimated uncertainty of 1000 metres. Data from countries other than France were usually far less precise; these were located using googleEarthPro and input with either a 5 km or 50 km uncertainty value. If a large administrative area only was mentioned on the label, such as Lafayette County, Miss., then a larger coordinate uncertainty was mentioned. Two locations could not be located and their coordinates are missing. If no location label was  present under the specimen, verbatimLocality was given as missing data (“[non renseigné]”).

The whole dataset was then formatted into a GBIF compatible file, which retains the original identifications, as well as the revised identification (if any).

In a few cases, the specimen could be identified only to a species group. This is indicated with “cf.” in identificationQualifier column, with one species of the group mentioned in scientificName. In three cases, the identification was only possible within a pair of species and the two species were mentioned in identificationRemarks: Microdon mutabilis or Microdon myrmicae (Schönrogge et al. 2002), Merodon moenium or Merodon avidus (Speight and Langlois 2020) and Cheilosia albitarsis or Cheilosia ranunculi (Doczkal 2000).

Step description: 

All data on specimen labels of the Timon-David Syrphidae collection were encoded in a table format. Every specimen received an individual label with its inventory Museum number. A total of 756 French hoverfly specimens were re-identified by GN, XL or TL. If the original identification had to be changed, the former identification was mentioned in the PreviousIdentification column and the updated one in the ScientificName column and the value in the identificationVerificationStatus column set as 1. The taxonomy of European species follows the list used by Vujić et al. (2022) for the Red List of European hoverflies. The taxonomy of specimens from other continents was checked with the Systema Dipterorum website (Evenhuis and Pape 2023). If the name had to be changed, but the identification of the specimen could not be checked, the updated name is mentioned in the scientificName column and a 0 value was put in the identificationVerificationStatus column.

There is only one paratype in the whole collection: an Australian specimen of Sphiximorpha alaplicata (Hardy 1945); in this case, typeStatus was set as “paratype” and its identificationVerificationStatus status was set as 1.

The type of Cheilosia vangaveri Timon-David, 1937 could not be located, despite Timon-David (1937a) mentioning specifically that the type remained in his collection. It was last seen in 1974 by E. Thorpe, but its subsequent whereabouts could not be traced (Barkalov and Ståhls 1997). Unfortunately, there is no surviving correspondence regarding Timon-David’s collection which could help (P. Timon-David, pers. comm. 2023).

Occurrence remarks: Here, ecological data are indicated, if any (host plant, altitude or other information, such as a record number given by Timon-David, regarding the specimen). A total of 72 French specimen labels only include numbers and these were probably taken during Timon-David’s studies on the islands of Marseille (Van Gaver and Timon-David 1929a, Timon-David 1940, Timon-David 1961) or the Alps (Timon-David 1937a); as their capture data are lacking, they could not be assigned to a specific location, only to France.

Geographic coverage

Description: 

Worldwide (Fig. 4; Table 1); 89% of the data from France (Table 2, Fig. 5).

Table 1.
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Number of Syrphidae in the Timon-David collection, sorted by country of origin.

Country

Number of specimens

Australia

4

Belgium

3

Brazil

42

Canada

1

Central African Republic

7

Chile

1

Colombia

6

France

951

Iran

1

Morocco

9

United States of America

45

[Unknown]

1

Total

1071
Table 2.
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Number of Syrphidae from France in the Timon-David collection, by French Department.

French Department

Number of specimens

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

32

Ardèche

19

Ariège

68

Bouches-du-Rhône

362

Drôme

18

Haute-Corse

3

Haute-Savoie

51

Hautes-Alpes

62

Loire-Atlantique

8

Lot

2

Oise

1

Pyrénées-Orientales

2

Savoie

4

Somme

23

Var

220

Vaucluse

1

Yvelines

3

[Unknown]

72

Total

951
Figure 4.  

World distribution of hoverfly specimens in the collection of Jean Timon-David.

Figure 5.  

Distribution of French specimens of hoverflies in the collection of Jean Timon-David.

Coordinates: 

-36 and 53 Latitude; -123 and 151 Longitude.

Taxonomic coverage

Description: 

Specimens of 239 named species and of one named subspecies belonging to the family Syrphidae (Table 3).

Table 3.
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Number of specimens by species in the Timon-David Syrphidae collection.

Species

Unverified

Verified

Allograpta obliqua (Say, 1823)

1

0

Arctophila flagrans Osten Sacken, 1875

1

0

Asemosyrphus polygrammus (Loew, 1872)

1

0

Baccha clavata (Fabricius, 1794)

1

0

Baccha crocata Austen, 1893

1

0

Baccha dimidiata (Fabricius, 1781)

1

0

Baccha elongata (Fabricius, 1775)

5

2

Baccha lepida Macquart, 1842

1

0

Baccha livida Schiner, 1868

1

0

Blera fallax Linnaeus, 1758

0

1

Brachyopa scutellaris (Robineau-Devoisy in Desmarest, 1843)

0

2

Brachypalpoides lentus (Meigen, 1822)

0

10

Brachypalpus laphriformis (Fallén, 1816)

0

4

Brachypalpus margaritus Hull, 1946

1

0

Caliprobola speciosa (Rossi, 1790)

0

6

Callicera marcquarti (Rondani, 1844)

0

2

Callicera rufa (Schummel, 1842)

0

1

Callicera spinolae Rondani, 1844

0

1

Ceriana conopsoides Linnaeus, 1758

0

1

Ceriana opuntiae (Ferguson, 1926)

1

0

Ceriana ornata (Saunders, 1845)

1

0

Ceriana vespiformis (Latreille, 1804)

0

1

Cheilosia albipila (Meigen, 1838)

0

1

Cheilosia albitarsis (Meigen, 1822)

0

16

Cheilosia barbata Loew, 1857

2

0

Cheilosia brunnipennis (Becker, 1894)

0

1

Cheilosia caerulescens (Meigen, 1822)

2

0

Cheilosia canicularis (Panzer, 1801)

3

0

Cheilosia chloris (Meigen, 1822)

1

0

Cheilosia chrysocoma (Meigen, 1822)

1

0

Cheilosia derasa Loew, 1857

1

0

Cheilosia gigantea (Zetterstedt, 1838)

1

0

Cheilosia grossa (Fallén, 1817)

2

3

Cheilosia illustrata (Harris, 1776)

4

0

Cheilosia impressa Loew, 1840

1

1

Cheilosia marginata Becker, 1894

1

0

Cheilosia sp.

3

0

Cheilosia melanura Becker, 1894

1

0

Cheilosia mutabilis (Fallén, 1817)

1

4

Cheilosia pagana (Meigen, 1822)

1

2

Cheilosia proxima (Zetterstedt, 1843)

1

0

Cheilosia ranunculi Dockzal, 2000

0

9

Cheilosia scutellata (Fallén, 1817)

2

2

Cheilosia soror (Zetterstedt, 1843)

0

14

Cheilosia urbana (Meigen, 1822)

0

11

Cheilosia variabilis (Panzer, 1798)

4

0

Cheilosia venosa Loew, 1857

1

0

Cheilosia vernalis (Fallén, 1817)

2

0

Cheilosia vulpina (Meigen, 1822)

0

1

Chrysogaster solstitialis (Fallén, 1817)

0

1

Chrysotoxum bicinctum (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

9

Chrysotoxum cautum (Harris, 1776)

0

14

Chrysotoxum elegans Loew, 1841

0

2

Chrysotoxum fasciatum (Müller, 1764)

0

5

Chrysotoxum fasciolatum (De Geer, 1776)

0

5

Chrysotoxum festivum (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

6

Chrysotoxum gracile (Becker, 1921)

0

1

Chrysotoxum intermedium Meigen, 1822

0

26

Chrysotoxum octomaculatum Curtis, 1837

0

1

Chrysotoxum vernale Loew, 1841

0

5

Copestylum azureum (Philippi, 1865)

1

0

Copestylum trituberculatum (Thompson, 1976)

2

0

Criorhina asilica (Fallén, 1816)

0

1

Criorhina berberina (Fabricius, 1805)

0

4

Criorhina floccosa (Meigen, 1822)

0

2

Criorhina ranunculi (Panzer, 1804)

0

1

Cynorhina analis (Macquart, 1842)

1

0

Cynorhina scitula Williston, 1882

1

0

Dasysyrphus albostriatus (Fallén, 1817)

1

7

Dasysyrphus tricinctus (Fallén, 1817)

0

1

Didea fasciata Macquart, 1834

0

3

Doros profuges (Harris, 1780)

0

1

Epistrophe caldus Walker, 1852

1

0

Epistrophe eligans (Harris, 1780)

0

4

Epistrophe eligans trifasciata Gomes, 1978

0

9

Epistrophe leiophthalma (Schiner & Egger, 1853)

4

1

Epistrophe nitidicollis (Meigen, 1822)

2

3

Epistrophella euchroma Kowarz, 1885

0

2

Episyrphus balteatus (de Geer, 1776)

2

10

Eristalini

6

0

Eristalinus aeneus (Scopoli, 1763)

2

10

Eristalinus sp.

0

5

Eristalinus sepulchralis (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

6

Eristalinus taeniops (Wiedemann, 1818)

1

7

Eristalis arbustorum (Linnaeus, 1758)

1

3

Eristalis fasciatus Wiedemann, 1819

1

0

Eristalis jugorum Egger, 1858

2

0

Eristalis sp.

4

4

Eristalis melanaspis Wiedemann, 1830

1

0

Eristalis nemorum (Poda, 1761)

1

0

Eristalis obsoletus Wiedemann, 1830

1

0

Eristalis pertinax (Scopoli, 1763)

0

1

Eristalis pygolampus Wiedemann, 1830

1

0

Eristalis rupium Fabricius, 1805

3

0

Eristalis tenax (Linnaeus, 1758)

5

11

Eumerus alpinus (Rondani, 1857)

0

1

Eumerus amoenus Loew, 1848

0

1

Eumerus barbarus (Coquebert, 1804)

0

1

Eumerus hungaricus (Szilady, 1940)

0

1

Eumerus sp.

1

10

Eumerus nudus (Loew, 1848)

0

2

Eumerus ornatus Meigen, 1822

0

2

Eumerus strigatus (Fallén, 1817)

1

0

Eumerus tricolor (Fabricius, 1898)

0

1

Eupeodes bucculatus (Rondani, 1857)

0

1

Eupeodes corollae (Fabricius, 1794)

1

8

Eupeodes flaviceps (Rondani, 1857)

3

0

Eupeodes latifasciatus Macquart, 1829

0

1

Eupeodes luniger (Meigen, 1822)

1

2

Eupeodes volucris Osten Sacken, 1877

1

0

Ferdinandea aurea (Rondani, 1844)

0

1

Ferdinandea cuprea (Scopoli, 1763)

0

7

Ferdinandea dives (Osten Sacken, 1877)

1

0

Helophilus sp.

0

1

Helophilus pendulus (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

2

Helophilus trivittatus (Fabricius, 1805)

2

7

Heringia heringi (Zetterstedt, 1843)

0

7

Hybobathus flavipennis (Wiedemann, 1830)

1

0

Ischiodon aegyptius (Wiedemann, 1830)

1

0

Lapposyrphus lapponicus Zetterstedt, 1838

0

1

Lejogaster metallina (Fabricius, 1777)

0

1

Mallota cimbiciformis (Fallén, 1817)

1

1

Mallota posticata (Fabricius, 1805)

1

0

Melangyna barbifrons (Fallén, 1817)

1

0

Melangyna compositarum Verrall, 1873

0

5

Melangyna umbellatarum (Fabricius, 1794)

0

3

Melanostoma dubium (Zetterstedt, 1838)

0

1

Melanostoma mellinum (Linnaeus, 1758)

1

7

Melanostoma scalare (Fabricius, 1794)

0

6

Melanostoma sp.

1

0

Meligramma triangulifera (Zetterstedt, 1843)

0

1

Meliscaeva sp.

0

1

Meliscaeva auricollis (Meigen, 1822)

2

15

Meliscaeva cinctella Zetterstedt, 1843

1

0

Merodon albifrons (Meigen, 1822)

0

14

Merodon aureus Fabricius, 1805

1

4

Merodon avidus (Rossi, 1790)

0

12

Merodon cinereus (Fabricius, 1794)

0

3

Merodon clavipes (Fabricius, 1781)

0

38

Merodon elegans (Hurkmans, 1993)

0

3

Merodon equestris Fabricius, 1794

0

19

Merodon flavus (Sack, 1913)

0

4

Merodon funestus Fabricius, 1794

0

1

Merodon legionensis Marcos-Garcia, Vujic & Mengual, 2007

0

1

Merodon sp.

0

1

Merodon moenium Wiedemann, 1822

0

7

Merodon nigritarsis (Rondani, 1845)

0

3

Merodon obscuritarsis (Strobl, 1809)

0

2

Merodon serrulatus (Wiedemann in Meigen, 1822)

0

7

Merodon spicatus Becker, 1907

1

0

Merodon unicolor (Strobl, 1909)

0

2

Meromacrus acutus (Fabricius, 1805)

1

0

Mesograpta marginatum (Say, 1823)

1

0

Microdon sp.

6

0

Microdon analis (Macquart, 1842)

0

2

Microdon luteiventris Bezzi, 1915

1

0

Microdon mutabilis (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

1

Milesia crabroniformis (Fabricius, 1775)

0

9

Milesia semiluctifera (Villers, 1789)

0

20

Milesia virginiensis (Drury, 1773)

1

0

Myathropa florea (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

12

Myolepta dubia Fabricius, 1802

0

16

Myolepta potens (Harris, 1780)

0

3

Myolepta vara (Panzer, 1798)

0

2

Neoascia annexa (Müller, 1776)

0

1

Neoascia podagrica (Fabricius, 1775)

0

5

Ocyptamus funebris Macquart, 1834

1

0

Ornidia obesa (Fabricius, 1775)

2

0

Palpada agrorum (Fabricius, 1787)

1

0

Palpada furcata (Chr. Wiedemann, 1819)

1

0

Palpada triangularis (Gilgio-Tos, 1882)

1

0

Palpada vinetorum (Fabricius, 1798)

1

0

Paragus bicolor (Fabricius, 1794)

1

5

Paragus haemorrhous Meigen, 1822

0

1

Paragus sp.

0

7

Paragus quadrifasciatus (Meigen, 1822)

0

2

Paragus tibialis (Fallén, 1817)

0

1

Parasyrphus annulatus (Zetterstedt, 1838)

0

1

Parhelophilus frutetorum (Fabricius, 1775)

0

1

Pipiza austriaca Meigen, 1822

1

0

Pipiza sp.

0

1

Pipiza festiva Meigen, 1822

0

12

Pipiza lugubris (Fabricius, 1775)

1

0

Pipiza quadrimaculata (Panzer, 1804)

2

0

Pipizella brevis (Lucas, 1977)

0

1

Pipizella sp.

0

6

Pipizella viduata (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

6

Pipizella virens (Fabricius, 1805)

4

0

Platycheirus albimanus (Fabricius, 1781)

2

1

Platycheirus ambiguus (Fallén, 1817)

2

1

Platycheirus peltatus (Meigen, 1822)

1

0

Platycheirus scutatus (Meigen, 1822)

0

1

Pterallastes thoracicus (Loew, 1863)

1

0

Rhingia campestris (Meigen, 1822)

1

0

Rhingia rostrata (Linnaeus, 1758)

4

0

Salpingogaster niger Schiner, 1868

1

0

Scaeva dignota (Rondani, 1857)

0

5

Scaeva sp.

0

1

Scaeva pyrastri (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

12

Scaeva selenitica (Meigen, 1822)

4

2

Serichlamys mitis (Curran, 1940)

2

0

Sericomyia bombiformis (Fallén, 1810)

0

4

Sericomyia chalcopyga Loew, 1863

1

0

Sericomyia chrysotoxoides Macquart, 1842

1

0

Sericomyia lappona (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

1

Sericomyia militaris Walker, 1849

1

0

Sericomyia silentis (Harris, 1776)

0

4

Sericomyia superbiens Müller, 1776

0

4

Somula decora Macquart, 1847

1

0

Spazigaster ambulans (Fabricius, 1798)

1

0

Sphaerophoria interrupta (Fabricius, 1805)

1

0

Sphaerophoria Le Peletier & Audinet-Serville, 1828

2

1

Sphaerophoria menthastri (Linnaeus, 1758)

1

0

Sphaerophoria rueppelli (Wiedemann, 1830)

0

3

Sphaerophoria scripta (Linnaeus, 1758)

6

9

Sphaerophoria taeniata (Meigen, 1822)

3

0

Sphegina clunipes (Fallén, 1816)

2

0

Sphegina elegans Schummel, 1843

0

1

Sphiximorpha alaplicata (Hardy, 1945)

0

1

Sphiximorpha breviscapa (Saunders, 1845)

1

0

Spilomyia digitata Rondani, 1865

0

8

Spilomyia longicornis (Loew, 1872)

1

0

Spilomyia saltuum (Fabricius, 1794)

0

1

Syritta pipiens (Linnaeus, 1758)

6

4

Syrphidae

93

0

Syrphus sp.

2

0

Syrphus ribesii (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

10

Syrphus torvus Osten-Sacken, 1875

3

2

Syrphus vitripennis (Meigen, 1822)

1

7

Temnostoma balyras (Walker, 1849)

1

0

Temnostoma pictulum Williston, 1887

1

0

Temnostoma vespiforme (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

1

Toxomerus boscii (Macquart, 1842)

1

0

Toxomerus geminatus (Say, 1823)

1

0

Toxomerus jussiaeae Vigé, 1939

1

0

Toxomerus politus (Say, 1823)

2

0

Toxomerus tibicen (Chr. Wiedemann, 1830)

2

0

Tropidia albistylum Macquart, 1847

1

0

Tropidia quadrata (Say, 1824)

1

0

Tropidia scita (Harris, 1780)

1

0

Volucella bombylans (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

8

Volucella inanis (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

5

Volucella inflata (Fabricius, 1794)

0

8

Volucella liquida Erichson, 1841

2

0

Volucella pellucens (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

10

Volucella picta Wiedemann, 1830

1

0

Volucella scutellata Macquart, 1842

2

0

Volucella zonaria (Poda, 1761)

0

14

Xanthandrus bucephalus (Chr. Wiedemann, 1830)

1

0

Xanthandrus comtus (Harris, 1776)

0

2

Xanthogramma citrofasciatum (De Geer, 1776)

1

2

Xanthogramma dives (Rondani, 1857)

0

11

Xanthogramma maculipenne Mik, 1887

1

0

Xanthogramma pedissequum (Harris, 1776)

0

4

Xanthogramma stackelbergi Violovitsh, 1975

0

1

Xylota segnis (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

9

Xylota sylvarum (Linnaeus, 1758)

0

3

Temporal coverage

Data range: 
1896-5-10 - 1961-7-04.

Collection data

Collection name: 
Timon-David collection
Collection identifier: 
MNHN.15441
Parent collection identifier: 
Insects
Specimen preservation method: 
Dried and pinned specimens
Curatorial unit: 
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille (MHNM), contact: Christophe Borrely (email: cborrely@marseille.fr)

Usage licence

Usage licence: 
Creative Commons Public Domain Waiver (CC-Zero)
IP rights notes: 

IP rights notes: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 Licence. All work derived from the present study should cite it appropriately, including the Museum where the material is held.

Data resources

Data package title: 
Syrphidae in the Jean Timon-David collection, Marseille
Resource link: 
https://zenodo.org/records/10362020
Alternative identifiers: 
https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10362019
Number of data sets: 
1
Data set name: 
Timon-David Syrphidae collection
Character set: 
TimonDavidSyrphidaeColl_v01.csv
Data format: 
CSV (tab delimited values)
Data format version: 
Darwin core, so that it could be transferred later into GBIF as more identifications are checked.
Description: 

The dataset includes data on 1071 specimens of Syrphidae collected or received by Jean Timon-David, in GBIF compatible format.

Column label Column description
occurrenceID Individual identification code: same as CatalogNumber
catalogNumber MHNM individual identification: combination of Museum name, collection identification, box number and specimen number within each box
basisOfRecord The specific nature of the data record (i.e. PreservedSpecimen)
eventDate Event date in the format YYYY-MM-DD if the capture date is known to the date, or YYYY-MM if only the month and year are known, or YYYY if only the year is known
year Year of capture if known
month Month of capture if known
day Day of capture if known
verbatimEventDate Date of capture, as mentioned on the label
scientificName Lowest taxonomic rank possible, usually the species name. If unknown, the genus or family names are given
identificationQualifier In case the identification could be given only to a species group 'cf.' is input
identificationRemarks Any comment on the identification of the specimen
kingdom Kingdom (i.e. Animalia)
phylum Phylum (i.e. Arthropoda)
class Class (i.e. Insecta)
order Order (i.e. Diptera)
family Family name (i.e. Syrphidae)
genus Genus name
specificEpithet Species epithet of the scientificName
sex Male (M) or female (F)
taxonRank Taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName
identifiedBy Name of the entomologist who identified the specimen. The name is written within square brackets if it does not appear on the label, but can be inferred from other specimens with similar handwriting, locality and date
dateIdentified Year of identification
identificationVerificationStatus Whether (coded 1) or not (coded 0) the identification was recently checked
previousIdentifications Species name originally given on the specimen labels
decimalLatitude Geographic latitude (in decimal degrees) of the capture location
decimalLongitude Geographic longitude (in decimal degrees) of the capture location
geodeticDatum Coordinate system and set of reference points upon which the geographic coordinates are based (i.e. WGS 84)
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres Uncertainty in coordinates, in metres
continent Continent of capture
country Country of capture
countryCode Two letter country code of the specimen origin
stateProvince French Departmental administrative division. In the case of non-French data, any relevant country administrative subdivision
locality Location of capture, usually the locality
verbatimLocality Any geographical indication on the label
InstitutionCode Museum where the specimen is held (i.e. MHNM)
occurrenceRemarks Any ecological data or comment on the label
LocationRemarks Any comment regarding the location
recordedBy Name of collector (i.e. legit information)
associatedRereferences Any reference citing the specimen
organismQuantity Number of individuals bearing the same label (usually 1)
organismQuantityType Individuals
georeferencedBy Identity of the person who added the Latitude and longitude data, i.e. Nève, Gabriel
georeferenceProtocol How the georeference was computed, i.e. from label data (verbatimLocality)
georeferenceSources Georeference code was inferred from geoportail.fr, French ING maps or googleEarthPro
georeferencedDate Georeference work was performed in 2023
language The dataset is mainly written in French, apart from column headings, which are in English
collectionCode Identifier of collection (i.e. MNHN.15441)
otherCatalogueNumbers Any other catalogue number the specimen may have
typeStatus One specimen is a paratype, which is indicated here as such.
minimumElevationInMetres Lower limit of the range of altitudes indicated on the label or in the associated reference.
maximumElevationInMetres Higher limit of the range of altitude indicated on the label or in the associated reference

Additional information

Abbreviation used throughout

MHNM: Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône, France)

Publishing organisation

Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille (MHNM)

Museum identifier

MHNM (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Marseille)

Contact

MHNM: Christophe Borrely, cborrely@marseille.fr

Dataset management

Gabriel Nève: gabriel.neve@imbe.fr

General discussion

The Syrphidae collected by Timon-David or received by him total 1071 specimens, mainly from France, but also from the Americas, Africa and Australia (Fig. 4). Unfortunately, the type specimen of Cheilosia vangaveri Timon-David 1937 could not be found in his collection. He probably lent it to a colleague whom we have been unable to identify.

Timon-David always retained a particular interest in the Sainte-Baume massif (Var), from which 155 hoverflies in his collection were collected between 1927 and 1959 (Timon-David 1936, Timon-David 1958). Another locality with a large number of collected specimens is his property at La Viste, a suburb of Marseille, with 118 records between 1926 and 1945. Timon-David left this property at the end of the 1940s when the northern motorway of Marseille was built. He then regularly visited the family property at Le Tholonet, near Aix-en-Provence (32 records from 1941 to 1952) and, in particular, the hamlet of Bret, where he collected 25 specimens from 1950 to 1954. He was interested in the entomological fauna of the Marseille islands (Timon-David 1940, Timon-David 1961), where his data remain the only ones on Diptera. He always hunted by sight, using an entomological net, which explains the rarity of small species (genera Paragus, Orthonevra etc.) in his collection.

Some of the data from his collection have never been published and some of the specimens remained unidentified. We have now addressed this issue for all specimens originating from the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var Departments. His collection now contains 756 French specimens with reliable species identification labels.

The examination of this collection improves our knowledge of the distribution of French Syrphidae species. Compared with the most recent national database (Speight et al. 2018, Speight et al. 2020) and recent additions to departmental data (Nève 2018, Ropars et al. 2020, Lebard 2022, Solère et al. 2022), Timon-David’s collection adds 34 species to the known hoverfly faunas of the Bouches-du-Rhône and 12 species to the Var Department, among others, leading to a total of 85 new Departmental hoverfly records (Table 4).

Table 4.
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Additions to known French Departmental fauna.

French Departments Species added to each Departmental known fauna

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

Merodon aureus

 

Microdon mutabilis

Ardèche

Callicera rufa

 

Chrysotoxum fasciolatum

 

Neoascia annexa

 

Sphegina elegans

Ariège

Chrysogaster solstitialis

 

Chrysotoxum bicinctum

 

Doros profuges

 

Merodon equestris

 

Sericomyia superbiens

 

Volucella inanis

 

Volucella pellucens

 

Xanthogramma dives

 

Xanthogramma stackelbergi

 

Xylota segnis

Bouches-du-Rhône

Baccha elongata

 

Caliprobola speciosa

 

Ceriana conopsoides

 

Cheilosia albipila

 

Cheilosia albitarsis

 

Cheilosia impressa

 

Cheilosia pagana

 

Cheilosia urbana

 

Chrysotoxum bicinctum

 

Criorhina floccosa

 

Eristalinus taeniops

 

Eumerus amoenus

 

Eumerus barbarus

 

Eumerus hungaricus

 

Eumerus nudus

 

Eumerus ornatus

 

Eumerus tricolor

 

Eupeodes bucculatus

 

Ferdinandea aurea

 

Ferdinandea cuprea

 

Merodon avidus

 

Merodon elegans

 

Merodon equestris

 

Merodon legionensis

 

Milesia crabroniformis

 

Milesia semiluctifera

 

Pipizella viduata

 

Platycheirus ambiguus

 

Platycheirus scutatus

 

Scaeva dignota

 

Spilomyia digitata

 

Spilomyia saltuum

 

Volucella inanis

 

Xylota segnis

Drôme

Chrysotoxum elegans

 

Chrysotoxum gracile

 

Epistrophe leiophthalma

 

Merodon cinereus

 

Scaeva dignota

 

Syrphus torvus

 

Xylota segnis

Haute-Corse

Merodon equestris

Hautes-Alpes

Chrysotoxum fasciolatum

 

Chrysotoxum festivum

 

Merodon aureus

 

Sericomyia bombiformis

 

Syrphus torvus

Loire-Atlantique

Lejogaster metallina

Lot

Caliprobola speciosa

 

Criorhina asilica

Savoie

Platycheirus ambiguus

Somme

Dasysyrphus tricinctus

 

Melangyna compositarum

 

Melangyna umbellatarum

 

Xylota sylvarum

Var

Brachyopa scutellaris

 

Cheilosia grossa

 

Cheilosia pagana

 

Cheilosia vulpina

 

Criorhina ranunculi

 

Epistrophella euchroma

 

Melangyna umbellatarum

 

Merodon elegans

 

Pipiza festiva

 

Platycheirus albimanus

 

Xanthogramma pedissequum

 

Xylota segnis

Vaucluse

Chrysotoxum intermedium

Among the added species noteworthy is the oldest record of Merodon legionensis (Fig. 6) for France (Louboutin and Speight 2021).

Figure 6.  

Habitus and details of head and abdomen of a specimen of Merodon legionensis collected at Bret, Le Tholonet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, on 23 September 1951, the oldest French record of this species.

Four species in the collection are classified as endangered at the European level (Vujić et al. 2022): Cheilosia venosa, Chrysotoxum gracile, Epistrophe leiophthalma and Eumerus hungaricus, five as vulnerable (Callicera rufa, Callicera spinolae, Microdon mutabilis, Pipizella brevis and Spilomyia digitata) and eight as near threatened (Cheilosia marginata, Chrysotoxum elegans, Chrysotoxum octomaculatum, Merodon flavus, Merodon legionensis, Merodon unicolor, Microdon analis and Spazigaster ambulans).

Timon-David's collection dataset will be used as one of the key sources for documenting the status of the south-eastern French hoverfly fauna present during the twentieth century, particularly in the Mediterranean area, with the hope that the recorded species will continue to thrive in the studied area.

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Pierre Timon-David who gave the whole collection to the MHNM and who answered our queries on his father’s life. We also wish to thank the staff at the Marseille Natural History Museum, especially Vincent Poncet, Martine Catania and Christophe Borrely, who made our research possible. David Bennett carefully corrected our idiosyncratic English. Robert Mesibov gave us valuable advice on the mysteries of the GBIF format. Adrien Perrard, Véronique Sarthou and an anonymous reviewer gave constructive comments on a previous version of this research article.

This scientific work is part of the natural heritage inventory (inpn.mnhn.fr). In 2023, it received support from PatriNat (OFB-CNRS-MNHN).

Author contributions

Study design: GN, data input: GN, JYM, LS, LJT, identification check: GN, XL and TL, data analysis and formatting: GN, writing up: GN. All authors commented and agreed on the final manuscript.

References

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