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Simply no idea. Not even the family. Any help will be much appreciated.

Taken on flowers near urban area by a reservoir in June 2011.

Thanks!!

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Another view.

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I think Saltella sphondylii

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Thanks a bunch, Nikita!! :)

Sepsidae then? There are only two species of Saltella in Spain:

-nigripes
-sphondylii

Does it help to confirm the species?

Thanks!!

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I needed to check my book at the office before I could reply but it is rather confusing. According to the European key, S. nigripes should have wings with a rather milky appearance, which seems to be visible in the top picture; but according to the description in the same book, S. nigripes should have a dark scutellum. With none of the other relevant characters visible (unless you can provide more pictures or a specimen) I would rather put it down as S. sphondylii as a milky appearance might be more easily wrongly interpreted than the reddish orange scutellum. ;).

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Thanks a bunch for your reply, Paul!! :)

Definitely I cannot see a 'dark' scutellum in my fly :D:D About the wings, I see them slightly traslucent more than milky, but probably that is more a matter of a personal interpretation of the words in the key ;) Anyway, wings of other pictures of Saltella sphondylii look rather traslucent too. Pity there are no pictures of S. nigripes to compare :(

The thing would go towards: are there any other Saltella species in Europe that might fit my fly? The picture was taken in N Spain (closer to Europe climate than classical sunny dry Spain), it might happen that it is a new species for my country :o :D Kidding! ;)

If you tell me which details are needed to rule out nigripes completely, I can check if there is any other picture where it can be seen. But those two pictures, although no brilliant, are the best I managed to take :(

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Hello
Only the male have reddish orange scutellum, in the galery the female have black scutellum ?

Louis

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Yes, Louis, you are right. I assumed my fly is a male |t

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As a rule, smaller specimens are darker and may be either males or efmales, larger specimens are more yellow and more often females. There is no mentioning of the colour of the sutellum being sexually determined in the European key. The shape of the abdomen and the apparent absence of stout setae on the fore femora make me suspect this is a female.

For proper identification a clear lateral view (showing the pleura and the profile of the head) would be helpfull.

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I asked Andrey Ozerov.
He confirmed Saltella sphondylii

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Again, sorry for the late reply. Way too busy all week :(

WOW, Thanks so such, Nikita, for taking the time to ask Andrey Ozerov. Great news that he confirmed |t

And thanks to all of you that replied and got involved in the discussion. Always learning from all of you! |t

best

Piluca

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