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Hello!

These 15 mm long flies were rather abundant on tree trunks here in Ostwestfalen/Germany in April/May last year (wood with mostly beeches), but I'm still not sure about the family. Could they be Xylophagidae and maybe the one above a male, that below a female of the same genus/species (perhaps Xylophagus compeditus)? Thanks for any hints!

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Xylophagus is right.
There has been some confusion on the names of the two (?) species occurring in Germany. I'll have to look itup.


Theo

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Thanks, Theo! The only other species I know from here in Ostwestfalen is X. ater, but I don't have the "Entomofauna germanica" volume on Diptera yet. Some checklists also mention X. cinctus.

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I guess this is the same problem we had. It has now been resolved as follows:

X. ater = X. compeditus (British use of these names was correct)
X. kowarzi = X. ater auct. nec. (as used by most non-British authors)

At least in North Europe X. ater (ex-compeditus) is by far the only common species of this genus and X. kowarzi is a rarity found only(?) in old-growth forests.

The flies above are clearly X. ater.

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Thanks Kahis,

Now I don't have to look it up.

Theo

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Hello, Kahis!



Thanks for the explanations. Then the "Catalogue of the Diptera of Bavaria" (*) is wrong. It lists three species:

Xylophagidae: BARTAK 1998; SCHACHT 1994
Xylophagus ater Meigen, 1804
Xylophagus cinctus (DeGeer, 1776)
Xylophagus compeditus Meigen, 1820

(*) http://www.zsm.mw...dipcat.htm (long list, use Ctrl-F to go to Xylophagus)