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Hello

Here is another Tephritidae (body length:3-4 mm) that I don't know the ID. I found it in a meadow that is supposed to be a little wet.
I assume this belongs to genus Tephritis but I have no certainty about the species. It seems to be more or less close to species like T. conura, T. matricariae and so on, however I'm not completely convinced. Or a strange T. vespertina since I caught a more typical specimen just before ? Unfortunately, I have no idea of the host plant.
Is this possible to know the species ?

Found in Roissy-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France
On the 9th of August, 2023

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Side view:

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From the non-genital characters and locality, ery probably Tephritis matricariae (80%), T. crepidis or T. conyzifoliae (Each 5% probability). All are associated with different species of Crepis.
I will ask also Severyn, who's better expert in Tephritis.

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Thank you Val once again. The identification seems to be complex.

I looked at the plants known in this place in a local database: I found only Hypochaeris radicata and Pilosella aurantiaca that correspond to genera cited on these pages (but not the exact species)).
https://bladmineerders.nl/.../tephritis-matricariae/
https://bladmineerders.nl/.../tephritis-conyzifoliae/
https://bladmineerders.nl/.../tephritis-crepidis/
No Crepis found in this meadow but Crepis biennis, C. capillaris, C. mollis and Hypochaeris glabra where found a few kilometers far away. The only species cited on bladmineerders is Crepis biennis for Tephritis crepidis. I think host plant lists are not exhaustive.

I hope this may be helpful.

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Where I live, I've seen Tephritis matricariae in every month of the year, while the host plants only are available a couple of months, so most of the time they seem to spent with no direct connection to the host plants.

Maybe they have to travel around, because the grasslands they stay on often get mowed or ruined by sheep.

Ben

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Ben, you are right: Tephritis overwinter as adults, hiding under leaves, at roots, everywhere. A very few of them survive until flowering of the host plants, but most are able to give numerous offspring, sometimes even 2 generations, depending on the host plant. They are most abundant in July-August, soon after they emerge. Many of them disperse far away from the host plant stand/site, often feeding with honey dew or nectar on carrot and even composite flower heads.
Some can overwinter between window panes, so one can meet them in the house on the windows in the warmer days.
Tephritis matricariae is generally a Mediterranean species, which, however, followthe mild oceanic climate and occur also in France and England. T. conyzifoliae is a mainly mountain species from Alp to Siberia, but T. crepidis is a rarest of the three and we know only a few localities, because all the old records can be misidentified with conyzifoliae. Only the country records by Merz in Merz and Korneyev are reliable, but many of them are still unpublished.

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Thanks Val,

We don't have mountains and Crepis coniyzifolia here, so that makes it easy.
In the South-East of the Netherlands Tephritis crepidis is abundant in April and May, and can be found almost everywhere, where Crepis biennis is present.

Ben

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Interesting. I was not aware that Tephritids were able to disperse so far away from their host plants.

However I think that it should not be T. conyzifoliae since it seems to be mountain species and none of his host plants are present in my region at first sight. Tephritis matricariae is the species with the greatest number of host plant in my region despite none of them seems to have been found near the place I caught the fly.

Thank you Val and Ben for your comments.