---

My wife and I recently had the privelege of viisting Antigua - my first time in the Caribbean. The biodiversity was superb. I tried to largely ignore the flies as clearly identification was likely to prove very difficult. I did however photograph three for which I also retained specimens. All had been attracted to the balcony lights and I was looking for moths.

This is the third of these. I do have the specimen in case it is of interest to anyone. It is overall 11 mm long. Collected Pineapple Beach Club, Long Bay, Willikies, Antigua on 20 Nov 2017.

I apprecaite that it is asking a lot but wonder if any of the spevcialists might be able to suggest an identification.

Many thanks

Alan

---

here is a second image.........

---

here is a third........

---

and finally here is a fourth.....

Many thanks again

Alan

---

Looks like a sarcophagid-imitating stratiomyid . :D

---

Thanks Paul. I had wondered if it might be a Sarcophagid. At least it is a male!

Best wishes

Alan

---

No, it's Stratiomyidae (note the wing venation), pretending to be Sarcophagidae, and really very convincing!

---

Thanks Tony. That is interesting.

I note that the Insectoid.info website includes just two species of Stratiomyidae for Antigua - not that that means anything. See below!

The two it gives are Cyphomyia chalybea and Pachygaster wirthi among just a handful of Diptera, most of them mosquitoes! This is clearly neither of these two genera - the first certainly appear to be quite remarkable looking flies.

The Insectoid.info website is very odd! Before I left the UK I had tried to pull together information on some of the things we might be likely to see in Antigua. Initially the Inscectoid site seemed very helpful in generating checklists for various groups, However all was not as it seemed! The site listed a good number of moth species but when I started looking further into these they were ALMOST ALL African species. Lists for other groups were also very strange. I do not know how they derive their information./ lists but there seems no facility to report errors or anomalies. I know there has been some discussion on Dipterists Forum about the Insectoid site but feel it needs to come with a warning to others who might waste time over it.

Thank goodness for high quality sites such as this one and Dipterists Forum.

Best wishes and thanks again

Alan

---

I'm fairly sure this is Cyphomyia, but not chalybea - it looks very like C.formosa (see http://140.247.96...?id=20328v The link shows a female, but if we imagine what the male would look like, it seems to fit your specimen very well. Known from Honduras and Colombia - not sure if it's been recorded from Antigua.

---

If so, there is some sexual dimorphism. C. formosa as illustrated has the spines on the scutellum situated between the dense pile on the apicalhalf of the scutellum. The above specimen has the spines on the apical half with the dens pile at the base of the scutellum. And then there is the colour of the antennae, but that can vary between sexes in other genera.

---

Very many thanks indeed to you both. As indicated I do have the specimen of this and the other two and if nobody else asks for them I might offer them to NHM if they are interested.

I am amazed that this one has evoked so much comment and is +/- identified whereas the hoverfly , which I had tentatively identiied has had no response and the Ulidiid just Paul's initial confirmation of the family. I had anticipated I mught not get any replies at all.

Thank you both again.

Alan

---

I would ly if I said I did not want them for our collection but I think that the NHM would be the approriate collection for such specimens. :D

---

Put 'Strat' in the title and/or ask Martin Hauser.


Theo

---

Thanks Theo. I will see if I can change the post title. I do not have contact details for Martin Hauser.

Alan

---

Thanks to Roger Thomason to point this thread out to me!
Awesome pictures, and yes it is clearly Cyphomyia chalybea, a male. I have only the close related C. dominicana (guess from where it is?!) in my collection (So I am of course very interested in the specimen, but I am fine with whatever collection it ends up - no worries). Also Woodley 2014 described a new Cyphomyia and gave a key to the Caribbean species (https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/4229/). Again great pics and a rare find.

---

Apologies to all for my misleading post that suggested this wasn't chalybea. Not sure what happened, but somehow convinced myself it didn't look right. (Should have gone to bed!) :S

---

Many thanks to all for your interest and input on this and especially to Martin Hauser for finally resolving it. If any of you would like the images at higher resolution then do please contact me.

Alan