#1
Hello
Who could help me to identify this Thecophora,: atra, distincta or ?
Thanks a lot
Denis Bucaille : France : Méry-la-Bataille : 60420 : 16/07/2020
Altitude : 123 m - Taille : 7-8 mm approx
Réf. : 263246
Posted by
Sundew on 16-07-2020 23:08
#2
If you'd checked the forum archive, you'd have found that many
Thecophora requests remained unanswered... It is a very tricky genus, and the experts agree that only females can be identified from photos by the shape of their genitalia. So your male hardly has a chance.
This said, the key
https://home.hccn...phora.html offers a small chance to approach the males, if there is a good view of the top of the thorax (two grey dust stripes flanking a middle black stripe or two black stripes in a grey field of dust). Sorry, but I cannot decide which to choose. So I followed both paths and got to
T. distincta on the one hand and
T. atra on the other, which brings us back to the starting point
If this is
T. distincta:
https://diptera.i...;pid=75178 or
https://diptera.i...pid=311780, it looks a bit different as to the dusting. On the other hand, the pictures of
T. atra males in
https://www.flick...219920050/ look rather similar. So you could label your picture "
T. cf.
atra", but keep in mind that a mere comparison of pictures is no certain identification at all!
Regards, Sundew