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Is this a Heleomyzid? Photographed beside a very small stream. This fly did not like having his picture taken, but finally let me get one good photo.

West Virginia woodland, USA, 4 October 2006.

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This is what the fly did every time the camera got close.

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Hi Stephen.
Yes, Heleomyzidae, I think it is genus Schroederella.
Nikita

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The clouding of posterior cross-vein and apical parts of longitudinal veins
point at the genus Scoliocentra s. l. According to the genus Amoebaleria in the sense of Gill, 1962 it could be a female of A. helvola (Loew) :p

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The clouding of posterior cross-vein and apical parts of longitudinal veins
point at the genus Scoliocentra s. l. According to the genus Amoebaleria in the sense of Gill, 1962 it could be a female of A. helvola (Loew) :p
Andrzej

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Nikita, Andrzej, thanks for your help with this fly!

Andrzej, how does one determine this fly is a female?

I must confess I find the information about Scoliocentra and Amoebaleria confusing. So this is a case where experts disagree how to arrange the genera in Heleomyzidae, and which species to include in each genus?

I see at Nearctica.com these three entries listed for Scioliocentra in North America:

Scoliocentra fraterna Loew 1863 (Scoliocentra)
Scoliocentra thoracica Collin 1935 (Scoliocentra)
Scoliocentra tincta Walker 1849 (Helomyza)

And these are listed for genus Amoebaleria:

Amoebaleria caesia Meigen 1830 (Helomyza)
Amoebaleria confusa Wahlgren 1918 (Helomyza)
Amoebaleria defessa Osten Sacken 1877 (Blepharoptera)
Amoebaleria flavotestacea Zetterstedt 1838 (Helomyza)
Amoebaleria glauca Aldrich 1908 (Leria)
Amoebaleria gonea Garrett 1925 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria helvola Loew 1862 (Scoliocentra)
Amoebaleria infuscata Gill 1962 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria perplexa Garrett 1924 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria sabroskyi Gill 1962 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria sackeni Garrett 1925 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria scutellata Garrett 1921 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria spectabilis Loew 1862 (Blepharoptera)
Amoebaleria triangulata Garrett 1925 (Amoebaleria)
Amoebaleria tularensis Gill 1962 (Amoebaleria)

So Andrzej, you are saying that under Gill's 1962 revision, this fly would likely be included in Amoebaleria, and it may be A. helvola?

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Hi Stephen,
You are rigth !, but I am still working to on this problem also. There are some points of view.
The last has been published in Contribiution of Palaearctic Diptera edit by Papp and Darvas in 1998, were A. helvola has been changed to Gymnomus helvolus (Loew). Present (before my paper will be finished and published) I can tell not more than: Scoliocentra is closely related to Gymnomus and Amoebaleria !!!. ;). You can use the name Scoliocentra helvola Loew from the author's description !. Regarding the sex :p: At the second photo the specimen has a little swollen abdomen and the apex is more or less triangle (there are the cerci !). In my opinion the true taxa (in Animals) which are "natural evolved" are the species, the higher taxa more or less could be or are paraphyletic.
Regards,
Andrzej

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Thanks, Andrzej. I am learning a lot at diptera.info!