Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Pegomya?
Posted by Sundew on 19-04-2008 00:08
#1
Hi,
Yesterday I met this grey and yellow fly on a
Euphorbia in our arboretum. It was not the first time I saw it; I have already several photo series of these little critters. I posted a thread last year that possibly concerned the same taxon, and you were somewhat bemused and at last named a
Pegomya a possible candidate. So could the present pics show a
Pegomya again? They are a bit better than the former.
Thanks, Sundew
Edited by Sundew on 19-04-2008 00:10
Posted by Michael Ackland on 19-04-2008 09:15
#2
It is a Pegomya female. There are probably 40 species in W. Europe which look like this! The females of this genus are very difficult to identify unless one can see the bristles, palpi, terminal segments of the female oviscapt. I posted some enlarged photographs of Pegomya bicolor some way back, especially the hind tibia, which in this species has 3 equally long dorsal preapical setae, and yellow palpi. The setae are characteristic of bicolor, but I can't see them in the photos. The odds are that your photos are also bicolor. Your last two photos demonstrate the difficulty of identifying flies from the scutal pattern, which as shown depends on the light condions.
Posted by Sundew on 19-04-2008 11:27
#3
Dear Michael, many thanks for your ID indeed! Meanwhile I looked at your
P. bicolor thread (it is a pity one cannot keep in mind all important threads that deserved it; so the same questions are repeated again and again and thus bother the experts). To depict the three setae of the hind tibiae without a stereo microscope is impossible for my camera. I was glad I saw leg bristles at all due to the quite homogeneous lightgreen background. As to the minor photo quality of such small flies, I am absolutely happy to reach a genus name, and so I am more than satisfied with
P. bicolor.
Cordially, Sundew