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Dear Forum,
I had a hard time with this sp. I found several of these flies near Kéleshalom (coordinates: 46.387021, 19.318929), Hungary, in an area of old sand dunes on 26. 07. 2017. It is a small sp., about the size if Stichopogon elegantulus. In Hungary the following Stichopogon spp. are known:


S. albofasciatus
S. barbistrellus
S. elegantulus
S. scaliger

S. albofasciatus is larger, have a differently structured mystax and completely black legs, so it can be excluded. S. elegantulus have white mystax, different abdominal pettern and mostly whitish hairs on the mesonotum. S. scaliger is again large, have red antennae and different abdominal pattern (especially males).

So, this sp. has to be Stichopogon barbistrellus. However, keys available to me are somewhat confusing. For example, the couplet leading to S. barbistrellus in Engels states that bristles on the mesonotum are white:

“15. Dornen der Legeröhre gelb. Borsten des Mesonotums teilweise schwarz………septemcinctus Becker.

- Dornen der Legeröhre schwarz. Borsten des mesonotums weiß .............. 16”

However, mesonotal bristles on these specimens are clearly brown.

Additionally, the mystax of females is described as “gelbweiß” in the key, whereas in those females I photographed it brownish yellow.

However I collected a female and that matches the detailed description quite well, so I am fairly confident that this sp. is Stichopogon barbistrellus I just thought these picture can help some other hapless photographers like me, in case they bump into this sp :)

Females:

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In males, the red on the tibiae seems to be restricted:

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