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Hello,
a friend found this fly on 20.7.08 near Furth im Wald, Bavarian Forest, Bavaria, Germany on a forest Meadow on Cirsium.
Body length: 3,9 mm
Wing length: 4 mm
Could this be Urophora terebrans (or aprica)?

Regards
Ingrid

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next photo

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Wing

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Unfortunately, I need a female to tell certainly. It looks more like Urophora congrua, which is common in the mountain meadow and is associated with sticky-yellow-flowered Cirsium thistles, has black femora and wide subbasal crossband on the wing. The variability in U. terebrans (which has wider range of host plants) in montane populations remains obscure (terebrans specimens from Ukraine and Italy are yellow-legged, but a few known specimens from mountains also have black femora), so I'd keep myself from 100% ID as congrua until the tip of female aculeus can be examined.

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Dear Valery,
thank you for your detailed explanation. The problem with U. congrua is that Cirsium erisithales doesn´t grow in our Region. So it would be really necessesary to find a female of this species..

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Even if you can estimate a circle of possible host plants (Cirsium and Centaurea species) growing there, it can clarify the situation. Many local populations of Urophora spp. shift from one host to another. But the most probable candidates look to be large Cirsium spp., e.g., Cirs. eriophorum (the host of U. terebrans) or another, previously unknown to be a host of U. congrua.
But, again: montane populations often look darker than the lowland ones...

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Thank you very much Valery.
During the next isect season we´ll look at the host plants in this area.
And I hope we´ll find further Thephritidae.