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Can anyone suggest an ID for this beefly.. recently photographed on Samos, a Greek Island, but just a few miles off the coast of Turkey. I can't find a match for it. Closest I can find is maybe Exprosopa spp.. but that may be wide of the mark and am not sure what species are possible for this region..

A few of these were around, alternately feeding on globe thistles, when not chased off by wasps, or sunning on rocks, usually up high where there was more sea breeze.

The wing patterning was very striking, and the clear bands very obvious, even in flight.

23.8.2011 c15mm Samos Greece, north coast.

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Does anyone know this fly?? Just the likely genus would help.

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I have come across a photo on http://naturewonders.piwigo.com/picture?/698/categories of Exprosopa capucina, taken in Turkey which looks much more like my Samos fly (and Samos is very close to Turkey) than the gallery images of this species taken in France and the Netherlands and venation details seem to match. Maybe it is quite variable regionally and mine is E. capucina?? in the Turkish form, Or the ID is wrong on the link I found, or some splitting is needed... Do any bombyliid experts have a view on this?

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One for Jorge!! :) ;)

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Hi Sara, yes, I hope he's around, though I fear he saw it when it was first posted and didn't have an answer (a rare thing...), as he did help confirm another bombyliid ID of mine posted at the same time.

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It seems an Exoprosopa. But not capuccina I think.
I will leave this for Gibbs.
Is proboscis short?

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Thanks Jorge, so you are out there! I hope David will see this and comment. 2 of the capucina images in the gallery are his, taken in France. But did you see the photo in this link http://naturewonders.piwigo.com/picture?/698/categories of the Turkish "E. capucina" Looks a lot like mine... But the taxonomy may well need a shake up.

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Firstly the fly in the above link is misidentified, capucina has a quite different wing pattern (see gallery) and i can only assume that it is a wild guess by someone who cares nothing for accuracy. The internet is just heaving with such random naming, even on some otherwise good websites (eg ispot).

Without a specimen to run through a key it is difficult to be confident of any identificaton, particularly of a species i have not got specimens of myself, as is the case here. However, i think it highly likely that this is Exoprosopa pectoralis Lw.

Would be good to have this one in gallery.

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i only saw the turkish fly now, and the ID is wrong. It should be discarded capuccina.

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Interesting... do you have more angles for this Exoprosopa, Nick? :)
And as Gibbs told, submit it for the gallery.

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Many thanks for your expert input on this David. I'm always wary of internet IDs, but was interested to find what looked like a visual match for my fly, but could see it differed from your E. capucina images in the gallery.

OK, I'd be happy to upload this image for the gallery as E. pectoralis, giving a link to this thread. I don't have many more shots, as these flies were quite hard to get close to. Three or four were around and trying to feed on some globe thistles, but some aggressive wasps seemed to view the flowers as theirs and kept chasing bombylids off to my frustration! But I found where they were resting on a rock face nearby and managed to get these without falling..

I attach one shot of a different fly, though, slightly more side on. This individual (or maybe the camera angle) shows more brown colour on the abdomen.

Is it possible to sex either of my flies before I post them? Maybe not possible from a photo in this species..?

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both seem to have well separated eyes so prob females but without being familiar with the species cannot be certain. in many species the difference in eye separation is slight.

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Many thanks David. I'll get these uploaded to the gallery soon.

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Found in the grounds of Parga castle, Greece (Lat/Lng: 39.2828, 20.3974), on 15 July this year.