---

Hi all,

can anybody help me to identify this hairy robber fly? It was patrolling around forest path in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, 6 July 2014, 450 m.a.s.l. Unfortunatelly, I have only pictures form this angle.

Greetings

Matej

---

Choerades cf. fimbriata

---

Thank you very much, but,in my opinion, Choerades fimbriata is much less hairy. I saw it even in this place, several minutes after this one. It had almost naked femora, black-stipped abdomen, overall look was different.

Can be Choreades fimbriata so variable?

A (very bad) picture of Ch. fimbriata from the same place and time:

---

Wow..: ) I would say it is a Laphria species (because of the face and beard) but it doesnt fit any description i can find. I keys out to L aurea, but looks totally different. Although this looks quite similar: http://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/238117.jpg

---

Maybe Laphria vulpina, a questionable species near to L. flava?
See at: http://www.robberflies.info/keyger/htmle/lapvul.html
Libor

---

Thought of that one too, but hair of abdomen seems to be adpressed ie flat against the body. In the flava complex the hairs are standing out like a bumblebee. But maybe we can't see enough.

---

Reinoud, Libor, thank you very much. I have one more picture of abdomen, may it help?

Matej

---

Wow! Fully hairy tergites. Anyways, with theese I can just reject my Choerades thought, and say Laphria sp as Reinoud said. I can exclude some species but, personally, have no sure ID in mind.

---

Thank you, I am starting to be affraid that my pictures are not sufficient for ID. Otherwise, I am pleased that I came accross a something extraordinary.

---

Don't worry too much, Asilidae can be impossible to do from a picture but experience and local knowledge can help a lot. This picture could be good enough (it is a good picture). I think you have a special creature on this one. Try to compare it with local collected animals if possible.

---

Addendum: The creature keeps on bothering me, now i'm doubting my own conclusion that this is a Laphria sp.

The creature looks like a Choerades species with a Laphria head.
The shoulders seem basicly brown and not black ???
Laphria usually has long hairs on the back of the mesonotum.

Questions:

Does the creature have the shiny facial hair as in Choerades or not? (compare with 2nd picture)

I hope someone with a lot of experience about Lahpriinae helps me out of my misery..

---

Answer: If I understand you correctly,it probably does not. Choreades have some shiny spot between eyes, shining from certain angles, this creature probably does not. Entire this creature was shining, facial hairs, as far as I can remember, were not remarkable. Its overall look was "hairy" and "gold".

Have a nice day,

Matej

---

No matter how thorax looks. Face hairs, above the hump, are Laphria's, and this is a keys' trait.

---

Looks a lot as Laphria cf. vulpina male which makes it a really interesting encounter.

---

Jan, thank you very much

Matej

---

I'm not conviced at all : ) compare: http://www.robberflies.info/keyger/htmle/lapvul.html

With Laphria species from the flava group (including vulpina) hair on the abdomen should be erect which is not the case, hair is adpressed. Also the very long postsutural hair of Laphria is not present on the mesonotum of this one.

As i mentioned before, it looks like a a head of a Laphria species on a choerades body. (not just the mesonotum also the abdomen, hair is adpressed in opposition the erect hairs of both L. vulpina and L. flava. Besides that, the shiny hairs on the face are not always obvious in Choerades, depending on the direction the light comes from. I therefore would suggest another species of which i only have seen pictures of collected specimens. : Choerades cf castellanii. Description by Hradsky fits quite well (admittedly the head remains strange) compare: http://www.biolib.cz/en/image/id238096/

I still hope that someone like Dysmachus or Danny Wolff would react. It is quite possible we will never know.

---

Yes, you are apparently right. In the meantime I chcecked those scarce pictures of the L. vulpina and they do not match. My field impession was neither "Choerades", nor "Laphria". Of course, I know only few species of these genera.

I will change the title and wait :-)