---

This Villa was photographed yesterday in central lowland France whilst surveying a Zone Naturelle d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique. The site is a limestone ridge with Quercus pubescens and Juniperus communis woodland with some clearings. It is surrounded by cultivated land. The fly was photographed on the edge of a farm track at the base of the ridge, with rough grassland beyond. Can I safely call this a female V. cingulata? It appears to have the classic cingulata abdominal banding and wing shading. However, I've run it through two keys (van Veen and Stubbs) and it comes out as a male V. venusta, which I'm dubious about because of the strong banding. However, it does have silvery tegulae and eyes that almost touch the ocellar tubercle. So my conclusion is that the keys aren't easy to use, I'm missing something (ahem...a specimen?) and I'm just confused. Any advice?

---

I do not think that the species is V. hottentotta or V. modesta, so V. cingulatus is a possibility.

according to Meigen 1820, this is Villa cingulata.

---

sorry for the misnomer. Yikes!

I study spiders and I'm currently dealing with Salticus cingulatus. I guess that I have the word cingulatus in my head. I accidentally typed V. cingulatus instead of V. cingulata.

---

Thanks for your input. I'm glad (sort of) that other people struggle with the keys for this group :-)