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Hi all,
I am very interested in finding out what fly this is and what it normally feeds on!
If you need other details, please let me know, I have many more photos.

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It belongs to family Phoridae. I have seen a few phorids like this and they belong to genus Phalacrotophora. The life history of this genus is known quite well, since the larvae are endoparasites of Ladybird Beetles (Coccinellidae) and these beetles are of economic imprtance.

The adults are typically found on tree trunks.

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Ok!
That's exactly why I was interested in the first place.
I saw them buggin the pupae of Harmonia axyridis the multicoloured ladybird and they even seemed to attack a prepupae.

I will see if I can find more about these parasites, or do you happen to know weblinks or literature?

Thanks,

elck

PS I saw that our own Paul wrote about these flies on a begium forum, I hope he can tell us more!






Fresh pupea and prepupea of Harmonis axyridis attacked by Phalacrotophora

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Definitely Phalacrotophora, but there are a number of European species, and we'd need specimens to know which one. The photos are beautiful

Brian Brown
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
www.phorid.net

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Suggestion:
Look at http://www.diptera-info.nl/downloads/European_Phalacrotophora.pdf

Jan Willem

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Thanks for the info Brian and Jan Willem.
When I know more I will come back to this.