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Hello,

This little one has some black markings on wings that make me think to some Otites species. Saint Apollinaire (Burgundy, France), wingspan 14 mm. 5th May 2005.





Can anyone tell me whether I'm right or wrong ? What about the species ?...

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Family Ulidiidae (= Otitidae) seems right to me. I will have to dig some further for the species. I will let you know, if no-one else does it before me. ;)

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Otites formosa. I checked a paper by Merz and he mentions that in Switzerland there is the colour form which is preliminary named formosa jucunda. At the time he wrote his paper, Kameneva was still sorting the formosa complex. He further mentions that the Swiss specimens differ from the Austrian formosa formosa by the fact that the black stripes on the mesonotum almost reach the scutellum. That is the same in you pictures. However, he also mentions that the Swiss specimens have the back of the head and the legs largely reddish (black in formosa formosa). In your pictures there is a lot of black on the legs and only the lower part of the back of the head is reddish. So, which 'subspecies' is involved I do not know, but Otites formosa will do for the moment.

Reference:
Merz, B., 1996. Zur Faunistik der Pyrgotidae, Platystomatidae und Ulidiidae (= Otitidae) (Diptera, Tephritoidea) der Schweiz mit spezieller Ber?cksichtigung von Otites Latreille. ? Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 69: 405-416.

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Thanks for these long explanations, Paul ! :)

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As Elena and I can see, it is O. "formosa", common in N Germany and perhaps in whole Benelux and bordering parts of France. O. jucunda is more common in B.-Wuerttemberg and bordering parts of France and Switzerland, and also in Central and some parts of S France. It has yellow femora. We'd greatly appreciate additional locations for any Otites, as Elena came back to revision of European Otites.

"formosa" is an unavailable name, and the problem of replacement name still exists. We'll inform you as the revision is finished.