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I found this specimen dead and fairly damaged in my house. It is reminiscent of Palloptera. Or maybe Lauxaniidae?

I checked P. trimacula on the internet (http://www.funet....cula-1.jpg) but the fly on that picture has a somewhat different wing pattern.

Can some of you identify if by the wing pattern alone?

Louis

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I'm sorry, somehow my picture won't attach.. The size is small enough though (32 K.

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Check if there is a space in the name (may prevent upload) and that the extension is not in capitals. Otherwise, send it to me by email and I will attach it.

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indeed, i had both spaces in the file name and capitals in the extension . so i try to upload again.

The fly is approx. 9 mm long.

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In the meantime I have studied the specimen concerned. When I saw it, it was immediately clear to me that it is not a pallopterid, but a specimen of the family Piophilidae, subfamily Neottiophilinae. It is a female of Neottiophilum praeustum (Meigen, 1826); an ectoparasite in birds' nests.
Although it has been recorded first from The Netherlands only in 1973 (Oosterbroek), it has since been collected at several localities in The Netherlands. Although I have no good overview of the data of this species, I think it is not uncommon in The Netherlands.

Jan Willem

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Thanks, Jan Willem!
I never before came across a member of this family! Louis