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 Tachinidae with unusual wing venation
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 06-07-2017 21:15
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 Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
This Tachinidae was photographed today on an iphone by my trainee ecologist in central lowland France. Chris Raper tells me it is definitely not Hypovoria as the m-cu vein isn't slanted enough. I assume we can rule out Uclesia as it is apparently a very early flying species. I don't know what other possibilities there are. Anyone have any ideas?
Susan R Walter attached the following image:  [107.68Kb] Susan |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 06-07-2017 21:16
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Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
Another view, slightly better.
Susan R Walter attached the following image:  [141.63Kb] Susan |
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| Zeegers |
Posted on 07-07-2017 07:30
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Member Location: Soest, NL Posts: 18775 Joined: 21.07.04 |
Dear Susan Clearly a Zeuxia cf. Cinerea. Theo |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 07-07-2017 08:19
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Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
Thank you Theo. Now that you say what it is, of course it is clearly a match! Five species of Zeuxia in France, one of which, zernyi, I assume I can eliminate because M1 meets R4+5 at the wing edge, not before in the pictures I have seen. Brevicornis not listed for France, and petiole on R5 looks too long to fit the description of subalpina. That leaves only aberrans and sicardi as possibilities (I don't have descriptions for them).
Susan |
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| ChrisR |
Posted on 07-07-2017 09:01
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 Administrator Location: Reading, England Posts: 7699 Joined: 12.07.04 |
Of course. My brain wasn't working yesterday - I blame a combination of a) doing the ID on my phone; b) 30C + humid commute; c) 4 hour delays and having to fight across London to a different station
Edited by ChrisR on 07-07-2017 09:02 Manager of the UK Species Inventory in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum, London. |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 07-07-2017 09:06
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Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
I think that is a perfectly reasonable excuse. Yesterday was a stinker, and I don't know how anyone sees anything on a phone in a moving vehicle, much less is able to concentrate on crowded public transport.
Susan |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 07-07-2017 09:53
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Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
OK. Ignore what I said above about zenyi wing venation. The one featured in the Diptera.info gallery has much the same wing venation as other Zeuxia. However, it has a lot of orange on the abdomen. I think the choice is between cinerea and sicardi.
Susan |
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| Zeegers |
Posted on 07-07-2017 20:02
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Member Location: Soest, NL Posts: 18775 Joined: 21.07.04 |
Sicardi is even redder than zernyi... |
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| Susan R Walter |
Posted on 08-07-2017 13:39
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Member Location: Touraine du Sud, central France Posts: 1802 Joined: 14.01.06 |
Thanks Theo, good to know. Sicardi certainly seems to be darker than the photo above, and Chris commented that his specimens are dark (but greasy). The pictures in the gallery don't seem to show large areas of red on the abdomen, but the closeups show red points. Is there a certain amount of sexual dimorphism, with males redder than females in Zeuxia? My conclusion is that the above is almost certainly Z. cinerea, but we can't say so for absolutely sure because the photo is so poor.
Susan |
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| Zeegers |
Posted on 11-07-2017 16:44
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Member Location: Soest, NL Posts: 18775 Joined: 21.07.04 |
I am 1200 kms from my collection, but sicardi is bigger, broader etc. This is not sicardi and I have little doubt it should be cinerea. As you say, we can't see all details, so working partly on "jizz" here. Theo |
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