---

Tiny, unco-operative little fly that just happened to coincide with the camera flash deciding that I must surely want it to reduce to 1/16 intensity. So even worse pictures than usual. Sorry.

Lusaka East Forest Reserve, close to (barely flowing) river, in Lantana thicket.

February 6th, 2016.

Probably 3mm?

Hoping someone can tell me whether I'm miles off or not.

---

2nd picture

---

And third:

---

Per Kessel & Clopton, 1970: Anterior crossvein present; body short and plump; 2nd costal cell scalpel-blade shaped; M1+2 branched; Posterior crossvein (fractionally) under 1/2 its length removed from wing margin on M3+4; 1st basal cell about 2/3 as long as 2nd costal (as opposed to almost length of 2nd costal) = Paraplatypeza.

The options thereof - admittedly 46 years ago - are 'orange and yellow, trimmed with black' (ikekeba - Southern Africa) or 'grayish brown' (congoensis - central Africa). I can't find Bowden's 1973 description of a 3rd Paraplatypeza from East Africa, so I'm removing the cf (which I hope is not a mistake) and leaving this at Paraplatypeza.


EDIT: I suspect that my eyes deceived me. With a ruler, the Posterior crossvein appears to be closer to 3/4 its length removed from the wing margin along M3 + 4, so this should fall into Plesioclythia instead

---

At the time of Kessel & Clopton's paper, the only all-black males with clear wings and branched M1+M2 were the various species of Plesioclythia (Posterior crossvein removed from margin by its length or more) and Loew's 'inadequate' description of Platypeza inornata, which they suggested might well belong to Paraplatypeza, as Loew's description did not provide sufficient information to be sure.

So this may be 'Platypeza' inornata

EDIT: Or it may be that my measurements were off, and this is Plesioclythia. Especially seeing as Plesioclythia is widespread across the appropriate regions, and the sole all-black 'Platypeza' seems to be limited to the Eastern Cape.