Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Tephritis species?

Posted by Peter Hodge on 05-09-2005 08:31
#1

Is anyone able to confirm my provisional determination of this unfamiliar Tephritd? Specimens were swept off Picris echioides (Bristly Ox-tongue) growing in a former arable field near Bognor Regis, West Sussex, UK during August 2005.

Using the key in White (1988) it runs down to Tephritis separata, a species provisionally recorded from the British Isles on the strength of a single specimen found more than 60 years ago at Barton Mills, Suffolk.

S?guy (1934) illustrates the wing patterns of many non-British Tephritis species. My specimens most closely resemble T. conjuncta (Pl.XV, Fig.180), now regarded as a synonym of T. separata (see photo posted below). Note that the basal hyaline area of the 2 large hyaline in cell r1 extends into cell r2+3, without being staggered at vein R2+3. One notable difference is that the tomentum of the scutum in all my specimens is entirely pale grey, and not striped as stated by White (1988).
www.diptera.info/forim/5-0686-1.jpg