#1
I can't even work out what family this fly is from. Found it holding territory in a shady nettle patch close to a small pond near the village where I live in Cheshire, UK. I thought it was a hoverfly from it's behaviour, but it has a distinctive bristle pattern on the dorsal surface of its thorax, so can't be one of the Syrphidae. Anyone any idea what it is and which family it belongs to?
Thanks
#3
Thanks Nikita. I was under the mistaken impression that the male Dolichopodids had large genitals curving under their abdomens. Obviously I was wrong and some don't.
Is this a female of the same species or a less well marked male? It was photographed on the same patch of nettles at the same time as the first photo.
#4
9. Mesonotum silvery white pollinose (anterior view
10. Face and frons silvery white pollinose (anterior view
? Antennal postpedicel 1.5 times longer (along lower margin) than high at base; antennal stylus longer than antennomeres combined; femora usually dark; rarely femora yellow with apical part of hind femur blackish; 5.0-6.0
Argyra argyria (Meigen, 1824) [Porphyrops] (Meigen, 1838: Syst. Beschr. 7: 154) *
=Porphyrops argyria Meigen, 1824: Syst.Beschr. 4: 46 (-a; F -us) ** Type locality: not given [probably Aachen]. Palaearctic: Austria; Belarus: Minsk; Belgium, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany; Greece: Crete; Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Moldova; Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, ?Romania; N Russia: Leningrad, Pskov; S Russia: Adygea, Krasnodar; Russia: Lipetsk, Voronezh; Slovakia, Spain incl. Canary Is., Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine: Chernovtsy, Crimea, Lviv, Tarnopil, Uzhgorod * Argyra
