Diptera.info

Posted by Jan Zwaaneveld on 17-07-2007 18:39

I found this one yesterday in the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen (dunes), Netherlands. At first I thought it was Tachina fera, but after reading some more in old threads I suspect it might be Peleteria rubescens.
Unfortunately it would not let me take a picture from the side, but the face looks very bristly.

Could someone confirm (or deny) my preliminary identification?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by ChrisR on 17-07-2007 19:48

It certainly looks like a Peleteria (not sure which species) - it's a little thinner in the abdomen than a Tachina fera. But you're right - it would be nice to see the face from the side and confirm those extra "Peleteria bristles" :)

Posted by Jan Zwaaneveld on 17-07-2007 20:10

Hello Chris, thanks for your reply!
We only have two species of Peleteria in the Netherlands: rubescens and ruficornis. I know from other threads that rubescens occurs in the area where I found this fly. I do not know if ruficornis occurs there as well, or how it looks like.

Posted by ChrisR on 17-07-2007 20:29

In an (unpublished?) suppliment to the Central European key Peter Tschorsnig writes:

The Mediterranean Peleteria ruficornis (Macquart) has been found in an old collection as collected near Chiemsee (southern Bavaria). It can be separated from the other Peleteria by its broad red margin of abdominal tergite 5.

So yours is unlikely to be that species because it doesn't have the wide orange margin on T5. Also yours has dusting on the anterior of the tergites and appears to have a black antenna-2 ... so rubescens would seem correct. :)

Posted by Zeegers on 17-07-2007 20:39

Well, actually we don't have ruficornis. It was once collected in 1901 by de Meijere near Hilversum, never seen since.
So (also by others arguments) this is rubescens.
Not uncommon in the dune area, otherwise very rare

Theo Zeegers