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Here in Diptera.info it is often question: "who is it Ph. pallida or Thricops diaphanus?"
Ph. pallida, Sochi region, forest

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Sochi region, same forest.
Bad image, but siutable to compare. Thricops diaphanus (2mm bigger than Ph. pallida).

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I've just found that I need images to compare myself. I wrote today that I haven't good image of Th. diaphanus. I have, but two hours ago I thought that it is image of Phaonia.
Chrestomatical difference - hairs on cx3 is, of course, always invisible on photo.
Three visible differences I found is:
1. Ph. pallida - arista yelloy and long plumose, Thricops - arista black and very short plumose.
2. Phaonia 2 stong presutural ac, Thricops - 3 week hair-like.
3. Ph.- forehead and back of head - yellow-white, Th. - grey-black

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Thanks for the pair of photos and analysis, Nikita - I think that's going to be very useful for future queries!

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I don't want to nag, but this is exactly what I meant in my thread http://www.dipter...ad_id=3862. If we could somehow collect threads like this, we're slowly building a database;)

Andr? Jas

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Hi Nikita,
In using this thread to determine my Phaonia pallida I found the following, shown in photo, if I have not made a mistake, the Acrostichals are the same though not shown, the fly on the right is a female Ph.pallida and the one on the left is a male. I checked a number of specimens and they all complied with this, in that the male is dark behind the head. The antennae are shown to be plumose in both flies, even if my photography is a little wonky.

Of course if neither is Ph. pallida I can only apollogise:)

Gordon