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Hi,
Recently I came across a swarm of tesselate muscid flies that I would put into genus Phaonia. They were sitting on a wood path in a wood in southwestern Germany (50 km west of Stuttgart).The hairy eyes and the long-plumose arista are striking. Is anybody able to suggest a species? Thanks for any comments,
Sundew

Here is a male:

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And a female:

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And some details:

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Hi Sundew, what about Polietes lardarius?

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Hi Eric,
thanks - that is a hot lead! I saw P. lardarius 10 years ago in Austria, but the species escaped my memory. I only recalled P. domitor, but that was significantly smaller than this big one, although it is habitually very similar and also appears in swarms.
So I have no doubt that the genus is the right one, but the species decription of P. meridionalis seems to fit better (cp. https://www.resea...a_Muscidae). To me, the face looks golden-yellow, there are many pale setae on the postgenae, and the anterior spiracle is yellow. I add some more pictures that hint at these features. Do you agree?
Regards, Sundew

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Hi Sundew, I agree: meriodionalis fits much better! I only found lardarius until now but this one's face looks much darker!

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Thanks - so we nailed it