Posted by Torsten Dikow on 08-07-2011 19:45
#5
This is a great image of a Mydidae and certainly the north-easternmost record of a Syllegomydinae in the Iberian Peninsula.
Hispanomydas hispanicus is found near Alicante (see
http://synthesis....spanomydas) and
Syllegomydas algiricus has recently been recorded near Almeria, Cabo de Gata, Retamar by Miguel Carles-Tolra in 2006, which is much further south.
Leptomydas lusitanicus, a Leptomydinae and the most widespread Mydidae in the Iberian Peninsula, is found as far north as Valencia (see
http://synthesis....usitanicus).
The species looks like the one photographed by Mario Diges last year near Alicante (see
http://www.dipter...d_id=24014) and although I identified that species initially as a
Syllegomydas species, I now think it is
Hispanomydas hispanicus as is this species! Why? Well I studied specimens from the Natural History Museum in London from Alicante (collected in the 1970s), which is also the type locality of
Hispanomydas hispanicus, and they do not belong to
Syllegomydas algiricus. Unfortunately, the type specimens of
Hispanomydas hispanicus are lost and the description by Arias (1914) is very short so that there is some doubt concerning the identification. The antennal character that Arias used to distinguish this species from
Syllegomydas is in my view just an artefact of the specimens he had available some 100 years ago.
Great image of a rare fly!