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Hello,

I suspect, Villa is a very difficult genus. Nevertheless the question, is more possible?
Found 1. July 07, central Germany.
Best regards

Frank

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Yes, Villa, and yes, Villa is a very complicated genus.
Good luck

Excellent picture


Theo

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This male belongs to the most difficult Villa group, the one which has black tuft only on abdomenal segments 5-6.

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I'd call this Villa hottentotta, but maybe there are other similar species in Germany I am not aware of.

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In Hungary there are cc. 5+ species in the "hottentotta" group, as defined by the black tufts present only at the sides of abdominal tergites 5-6. I tried to key out some Villa sp (more than 50 images in my gallery of quite differently looking Villa spp in this group), but I failed miserably. The problem is that the key relies on the presence, extent and color of the "fur" at various positions of the fly, which is I think highly variable in the beginning, and difficult to judge on the top of everything as these hairs easily come off when the fly gets older, or when it is collected.

The male genitalia are supposedly somewhat better, but so far I failed to understand its anatomy. I think it is not very easy to learn them without a person who explains how and what exactly to look at.

I suspect the genus should be revised.

The pic here looks like the typical hottentotta, in which the male (on this image) is typically large, looks dark (little yellow hair on the tergites compared to some other forms) and has little brown infuscation in the apical side of the wings.

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I agree that this is probably hotentotta but Xespok is right, the use of vestiture is very unsatisfactory due to variability and rapid abrasion which results in startingly different looking flies once they are a few days old.



this is a massive understatement, even in GB with only three species the names that should be applied are uncertain. The male genitalia probably hold the key, particularly the structure of the tip of the epiphallus, but I too have yet to obtain sufficient range of species to understand them well but Francois 1966 and 1969 illustrates a good range of species.

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Thanks to all for the detailed estimate!
Then it remains with Villa sp., but with good tendency to Villa hottentotta.

Best regards

Frank