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Hello all,
What is (are) the visible difference(s) between Nemotelus pantherinus and N. uliginosus ?
Last year someone on the list (I think it was Paul) identified a photo of mine as N. uliginosus. I see now in the gallery several N. pantherinus pictures which look completely identical with my Nemotelus, at least to my untrained eyes.
Also, a search on the web under "uliginosus" resulted in a hit to the gallery...opening a pantherinus photo (there aren't any picture of uliginosus on the DI gallery... Anybody care to comment on this ?

Cheers
Philippe

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The best difference is usually badly visible: male pantherinus are almost completely white on the ventral side of the abdomen, in uliginosus it isalmoste entirely black. Female pantherinus do not have any white markings on the frons, these markings are present in uliginosus.

And the Gallery: Just today I changed the name from uliginosus to pantherinus at the request of wilde. ;) The last image (3) clearly shows the white on the sternites.

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Thanks Paul. You see, we DO notice and use the gallery!!! Thanks for a job well done indeed
Philippe

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So this female would be uliginosus, then (white in front) ? That's the picture from last year.

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and this male (June 24 2007) would not be IDable, since we do not see the underside... ?
Or did I miss something ?

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Using Rozkosny's 'bible' for the European Stratiomyidae I think I can conclude that this is also pantherinus. In his key the distinction is made by examining the amount of white/yellow on the thorax. in pantherinus postpronotal lobe (humerus) is only whitish above (largely white/yellow in alternative) and the subnotopleural line is indistinct (distinct and clearly broadly white/yellow in alternative).

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Not quite - this is a male ;) and it is probably not uliginosus because the face is too short. It does have more widely separated eyes than the specimen in the lower picture, so I think it is a different species, but I am not as certain as Paul that the lower one is pantherinus.
As I said elsewhere, this genus is not easy. With such a variable genus, examining the genitalia is often the only way to be certain. :(
The best chance to get an ID from photos is to get good dorsal, lateral and ventral shots. Fortunately these little flies are so intent on feeding that it is usually possible to get them from different angles.:) (But beware of different species feeding on the same flower heads! :@)