Posted by Steve Scholnick on 06-11-2019 05:02
#1
This battered and bruised muscid was dying as I started to photograph it and there are lots of broken and missing bristles. The body is ~6mm long. Found in a densely populated suburban area of Maryland.
It
appears to be
Mydaea based on the Huckett & Vockeroth key in the Manual of the Nearctic Diptera. I could be (probably am) way off so here are the character states from the key that I think I see: anepimeron bare; hind tibia with only a preapical middorsal bristle, Sc very close to R over most of its length; hind coxa without setae on posterior surface; hairs at node of Rs/base of R4+5; prosternum bare; Last section of M not curved forward; katepisternum with three major bristles (+1 that is distinctly smaller than the usual 3 but much larger than a hair), legs yellow; eye bare.
On the assumption that this genus ID
might be correct, I tried Snyder's 1949 key to
Mydaea (
http://digitallib.../2246/4273). What I get is
Mydaea flavicornis Coquillett: dorsocentrals 2:4; scutellum yellow, contrasting sharply with the dark thoracic disc; palpi and antennae fulvous; lateral ventral margins of scutellum with some black bristles.
After all that, I'd greatly appreciate someone with expertise telling me what it really is.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Steve
ventral view of whole wing & inset of dorsal view of Rs node
"L" = view of left hind tibia from above & behind. "R" = anterior face of right hind tibia & tarsi
view of posterior site of hind coxae
prosternum
katepisternum
Edited by Steve Scholnick on 09-10-2022 23:09