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The first fly. July 01, 2006. Size 4.5-5mm.

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Another view.

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The head.

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The second fly. July 01, 2006, on Carex. Size 6-7mm.

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Another view.

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Lovely photos, again! :D

1. looks like Phasia obesa (female) - if it has yellow hairs on the gena.
2. isn't a Phasia sp. - I think it is more like Cistogaster, Clytiomya or Eliozeta. I can't quite see if the wing is petiolate or not - can we see a photo with a clearer wing-tip? :)

(sorry, no matter how good the photo I always seem to ask for more! ;))

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Chris, I have to disagree about first one.
My test it is male, Phasia barbifrons.
Nikita

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Hi Nikita, Fly-1 does have yellow haltares but it also has a lot of grey dusting on the thorax, which is more characteristic of Phasia obesa. The colour of the hairs on the gena is apparently a very good way to split obesa from barbifrons in difficult specimens :)

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Hi Chris.
I compared Black's fly my photos of Ph. obesa and Ph. barbifrons and collected Ph. barbifrons I have. My Ph. obesa has much more dusting thorax, but Ph. barbifrons has not dust at all.
So, it seems you are right, I'm wrong.

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In the key it says that in Phasia barbifrons is *should* have a completely dark thorax ... but just as obesa *should* have a heavily dusted thorax there are occasions where the features are not as they should be ;) So, last week Peter Tschorsnig said this hair colour on the gena is a nice way to split off obesa from the other 2 small ones easily ... so more work for Dima ;)

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Thanks Chris and Nikita (I hope you don't mind me barging in your educated dialogue ;)) - I'll check the wing-tip later.

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Hello Chris,
I hope this picture would help you with the colour of hairs on genae.

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Chris, I hope this picture would tell you more about the second fly.

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Hi Dima - sorry for the delay but I missed these updates for a day or two. The Phasia is now definitely P.obesa - lovely photo of the gena :)

I'll get back to you on the orange one :)

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Thanks Chris - actually I had some network problems and no Internet access in last 24hrs.

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I have keyed the little orange fly as best I can (using the Palearctic genera software key + the Central European key) and it comes out to Eliozeta helluo but I don't have any examples to check it against.

Perhaps you or Nikita can check Russian references to see if you can find specimens to check against. Fauna Europaea has a nice map that shows it should reach your part of the world: http://www.faunae...on1=144281

B)

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Hello Chris, what a impressive name! Hope Nikita could check it somehow. Thanks a lot :). One more Tachinidae from my balcony in a few minutes.

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Hello Chris, could this be the same one? July 23, 2006, our town park, swept from grasses near water, size 7mm.

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It certainly looks like one - but older and tatty with rubbed-off bristles on the abdomen - you can still see the bristle sockets there the marginals used to be :)

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Yes I see these clearly - thanks Chris

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Chris is right,
also on the second one, it is Eliozeta helluo.

Nice job ! Since this is clearly no UK-species.


Theo Zeegers

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Thanks a lot for your confirmation Theo

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somehow my post didn't get through.
Try again:

The second one is indeed a male of Eliozeta helluo.
Nice pictures !
Great ID by Chris, since this species is non-UK


Theo Zeegers

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(blushes) ... thanks - I was quite pleased with the ID and it took about an hour of searching through the keys (both text and software). But such a great photo of a really nice fly - it deserved a name ;)