#3
Careful there! There is a small marking at the tip of the wing but in the genus
Sepsis and the closely related ones it is at the apex of vein R2+3. Here it is at the apex of R4+5! Moreover, virtually all of the species in that group of genera are (largely) blackish, and this one is brown. The manual of Nearctic Diptera mentions one pale brown species (
Meropliosepsis sexsetosa) but that is only found in Central and South America... Other aberrant features are the somewhat protruding head and the rather narrow wings.
My suspicion:
Myrmecothea myrmicoides of the Ulidiidae.
#4
Hi Paul,
Sorry to take so long to get back about this one.
I sent the image back to the person who knows Ulidiids well and who first suggested Sepsidae.
He said:
"I stand corrected. It isn't a sepsid. The ovipositor is of the tephritoid type. But it also isn't Myrmecothea myrmicoides. I think it is Sepsisoma flavescens Johnson (Richardiidae) female."
He then said it would help if he sould see the hind femoral spines and wing venation. A blowup of the leg was too fuzzy, but that of the wing venation fits the Sepsisoma.
This has been a controversial fly.
