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Posted by Jan Zwaaneveld on 10-08-2007 19:57

I photographed this nice fly today at Leerdam, Netherlands. It was about 8-10 mm long and had a dark metallic green body with a bluish shine on the abdomen.
I think it must be Protophormia and I find it very similar to Protophormia terraenovae in the gallery.
Could someone please confirm or correct me?

Thanks in advance!

Edited by Jan Zwaaneveld on 10-08-2007 23:44

Posted by Zeegers on 10-08-2007 21:42

HO, stop.

It's Protophormia terranovae and Protocalliphora azurea (or another).
This is Protocalliphora azurea, slightly dark due to the lack of light, apparently.
Protophormia is quite rare in the Netherlands (not in Russia) and Protocalliphora quite common in August.

Theo

Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 10-08-2007 22:51

To tell you truth Theo, I'm not convinced at all.
May be Protophormia terranovae is rare in the Netherlands. Yes, Protophormia terranovae is rather spring species, but not rare at August too (it seems to me that especialy this year).
But coming back to fly itself.
Protocalliphora azurea has strong prst ac, dusted mesonotum, black apex of palpi, calypters (at least upper) white.
Protophormia terranovae has no prst ac, undusted mesonotum, yellow palpi, dark (so unvisible on photo) calypters. This fly too. And flatterned posterior part of mesonotum.
Nikita

Posted by Jan Zwaaneveld on 10-08-2007 23:52

Nikita and Theo,

It is true that light conditions were not great when I photographed it (it was cloudy). But this one looked quite different from an (alleged) Protocalliphora azurea I photographed before. Not only this fly seemed darker, but the abdomen of P. azurea seems shorter and more broad when I compare that photos with the photos of this fly.

Anyway, I will leave the final id up to you. I hope you can come to an agreement :)

Posted by Zeegers on 11-08-2007 13:11

If it didn't look splendidly blue in the field, it's not Protocalliphora.
Moreover, it seems that the prae-ACR are genuinely lacking, as pointed out by Nikita. At first, I guessed this was artifical due to the lack of light. SO, Nikita is right

Theo

Posted by Jan Zwaaneveld on 11-08-2007 17:23

It definitely did not look splendidly blue in the field. It looked some shades darker green than a couple of Lucillia sp. in direct comparison. Only when I saw the pictures I noticed that the abdomen had a bluish shine.
I will book it as Protophormia terraenovae then. Thanks for your help, gentlemen!