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Could this be a Prosena sp.? Malaise trap. Townsville, Queensland.

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Based on the long proboscis, I assume.

Otherwise, it looks more like a Leskiini or Bithia.
At our side of the planet, Aphria has a similar proboscis.


Theo

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Thanks Theo. There are no Bithia here, so will leave it as Prosena.

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Does it have a plumose arista and central facial ridge?

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So, I took the Herculean task upon me to actually pick up a relevant book (Crosskey 1973).
In all Prosenini, the excavation of syntergite 1&@ reaching the apical margin of that segment. Here, it does not. THere should be 3 pair of apical marginal bristles, here 2 pair. In Prosena, you'd have 1 post IA, here there seem to be 3 but surely 2. So Prosena, it cannot be.
If you follow my guess and suppose Leskiini, it runs pretty nice to Sipholeskia. Only one species from Queensland known: Sipholeskia certima. Originally described in Demoticus, next of kind to Bithia.
It seems this all makes sense.

Theo

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Hmm, yes it fits Leskiini better for me - nice detective work :)

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Theo, do I read 2 for @?
Many thanks for your assistance.
Cheers, Graeme

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I keep running into problems with my requests in that I don't have the flies on hand. They are stored at BOLD. So I've resurrected the malaise trap in the hope I can collect them again.

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Yes, '@' read '2'.

Theo

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Hi Greame

If you have the DNA barcodes, use the identification engine in BOLD. Prosena siberita is in the database as well as several Leskiini. Could give you a rough direction where to look at!

Cheers,

Jaakko

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Unfortunately the DNA failed in this particular species.

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Sipholeskia is now considered a synonym of Leskia. Wood's 1987 key to North American Tachinidae synonymized many of Townsend's monotypic genera. The type of Leskia is from Europe and the type of Sipholeskia is from California. Possibly your fly ought to be in a different genus, but probably not in a revived Sipholeskia.

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Thanks John