Posted by raywilson on 21-06-2008 19:24
#1
I can't even work out what family this fly is from. Found it holding territory in a shady nettle patch close to a small pond near the village where I live in Cheshire, UK. I thought it was a hoverfly from it's behaviour, but it has a distinctive bristle pattern on the dorsal surface of its thorax, so can't be one of the Syrphidae. Anyone any idea what it is and which family it belongs to?
Thanks
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 21-06-2008 21:20
#2
Silvery fly with silvery name - Argyra, Dolichopodidae
Posted by raywilson on 21-06-2008 22:17
#3
Thanks Nikita. I was under the mistaken impression that the male Dolichopodids had large genitals curving under their abdomens. Obviously I was wrong and some don't.
Is this a female of the same species or a less well marked male? It was photographed on the same patch of nettles at the same time as the first photo.
Posted by Igor Grichanov on 22-06-2008 12:31
#4
9. Mesonotum silvery white pollinose (anterior view
10. Face and frons silvery white pollinose (anterior view
? Antennal postpedicel 1.5 times longer (along lower margin) than high at base; antennal stylus longer than antennomeres combined; femora usually dark; rarely femora yellow with apical part of hind femur blackish; 5.0-6.0
Argyra argyria (Meigen, 1824) [Porphyrops] (Meigen, 1838: Syst. Beschr. 7: 154) *
=Porphyrops argyria Meigen, 1824: Syst.Beschr. 4: 46 (-a; F -us) ** Type locality: not given [probably Aachen]. Palaearctic: Austria; Belarus: Minsk; Belgium, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany; Greece: Crete; Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Moldova; Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, ?Romania; N Russia: Leningrad, Pskov; S Russia: Adygea, Krasnodar; Russia: Lipetsk, Voronezh; Slovakia, Spain incl. Canary Is., Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine: Chernovtsy, Crimea, Lviv, Tarnopil, Uzhgorod * Argyra