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I hope to get name (at least genus) from our Sarcophagidae expert.
This fly is very common on dry sand in 2-5m from sea on any beach.

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The habitat suggests Sarcophila latifrons, the fly seems different, though.

Theo

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Well, I am certainly no Sarcophagidae expert, but this reminds me of Metopia?

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It does, because of its colour, but it is not. Metopia has the parafrontalia toughing each other , here the frontal stripe between the parafrontalia is very broad.

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This is not Miltogramminae. I do not know any Miltogramminae with such big genitalia.
It is not Sarcophila, because this male does not have proclinate orbitals.

My guess would be Paramacronychiinae, Wohlfahrtiodes.
But my knowledge of oriental Paramacronychiinae is poor.

Please check hind coxae. They should not be hairy on posterior surface, to exclude Sarcophaginae.

Liekele

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I have seen some specimens yesterday.

Hind coxae are hairy, so this belongs to Sarcophaginae.

It is consistent with description of Sarcophaga (Leucomyia) alba, though I have not checked genitalia yet.

Very nice surprise.

Liekele

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1. Thank you Liekele.
2. Why Sarcophaga (Leucomyia) alba is very nice surprise?
Nikita

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maybe it is rare around and just common in Thai beaches? :P Or it is new for the region...

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An interesting shore sarcophagid, this Sarcophaga (Leucomyia) alba. It occurs from India and Sri Lanka up to the Ryu-Kyu-Isles. In the northern Kyoto region its numbers have strongly diminished and it is now considered threatened.
There are nice photo's on the japanese site: http://furumusi.aez.jp/wiki.cgi?Sarcophagidae064 . Who wants it, can the texts having translated by Babel Fish at Altavista. Good luck, Jan HC Velterop.

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Well, so it is very nice surprise, because it is nice fly and Sarcophaga ID to species level.
Also, very nice fly to observe it's biology - you can site on the sea beach as "normal" = "not crazy" tourist and observe it's life.
Anything is known about Sarcophaga alba biology so far?
Nikita

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Ahem...where was the dead crab then?

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Susan, Sarcophaga alba isn't sp.nov for science.
Such a common flies may be found even without dead crab!

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That's all right then - just checking your definition of 'normal' :p

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Returning back to Sarcophaga alba
I promised to observe biology of this species. Unfortunelly this year S. alba was much less common than previous.
Susan, it is really assosiated with crabs, but not dead crabs, with alive crabs.
S. alba concentrate near large (about 10cm D) holes of crabs and also spend a lot of time deep inside this holes.
Nikita

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Interesting observations ... have you changed your Diptera study to beach-living species so that you can watch them while sipping a Piña colada and relaxing on a sun-lounger? ;)

... and no, I am not at all jealous ... really ... honestly ... with -7C here in England :p

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Oh, Chris, I hoped so, but in reallity it looks not as wonderful - you observe Sarcophaga and a crowd of Thai people observe you. I'd prefer deep forest observations...

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Hi Nikita - just wondering whether there are any snails associated with the crab holes - these might be a potential host?

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:d LOL Nikita! :D And you got some dead crab into the car? :D

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Jorge, it was alive crab!
Tony, I can't see why we need any snails in addition. Wet sand mixed with crab's excrements in shade of crab hole - isn't it a paradise condition for Sarcophaga larvae?
Nikita

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Dear Nikita,
If you visited some of the research stations scattered around you would find a different sort of Thai person. If you were going as far north as Petchaburi I could give you a contact at the Lam Pak Bia Mangrove research centre - it has about 4 km of raised wooden walkways through the mangroves as well as a lot of wastewater reclamtion study and demonstration plots. There is no hotel nearby but they would probably be able to find you a bed for a couple of nights. A little further north is the Marine Coast and Mangrove Research Centre, they too have raised walkways through the mangroves, but not as much. Both places also have a lot of Salt farms and shrimps farms nearby. No Pina Colades however.

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when will you return to the Moscow, Nikita?

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I'm in Moscow since 03 Jan

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Ahhhhhhhhh.:(

Well let's look on the bright side, now you can look at the Kerkini muscids.:D

Gordon

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Possibly - I don't know if the biology of Leucomyia is known, but a majority of Sarcophaga species breed in small carrion, such as snails - only a few species naturally breed in faeces

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Tony, I'm very ignorant in crab's biology, but after few observations it seems to me that this biology is of the type that any snail carrion quickly turns into crab excrements :D
Would like to know what Liekele thinks...
Nikita

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Good point! :D