Posted by Tony Irwin on 18-10-2006 19:45
#5
And I thought it would be so obvious! ;)
This is an
Anthomyia female. The features (apart from the markings) to look for - wings folded together over the abdomen, not held slightly apart; abdomen smaller than the thorax, and held downwards.
These are pointers rather than rules (for example the muscid
Lispe holds its wings together), and many anthomyiids hold the abdomen straight out, rather than downwards.
Another pointer to distinguish
Anthomyia and
Eustalomyia (Anthomyiidae) from similarly marked muscids is that they have paler grey dusting with blacker markings. Muscids such as
Limnophora have darker grey dusting so the markings do not contrast so much.
Is this beginning to make sense, or am I adding to the confusion even more? :p