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Hello
Collected 18 06 09, exact size 22 mm;)

thank you for help

pic1

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pic2

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pic3

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pic4

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Exact size, so you measured it ? This is very large for a male.

It is not a Hybomitra, but a Tabanus.
I'd guess T. tergestinus, however, the size does not match.

Could a see a pic of the venter / sternites ?


Theo

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Yes I measured it

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sternites

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That was fast !

It is really big, specially for a male, so it must be in the sudeticus group.

As expected, the venter shows no sign of dark central vitta at all.
Moreover, the antenna is very red.

So that leaves only Tabanus tinctus (if it is from Europe: in Turkey it might be something else).

Theo

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Thank Theo

Photos were already made.
All photographs are taken in Provence France

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Wing

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I'm starting to have more doubts. The first posterior cell is not narrowing at all, as I'd guessed from the previous pics.
I have never seen this in tinctus (I just checked my collection). Moreover, the upper facets in eye are strongly enlarged, as in autumnalis or sudeticus (which it is both obviously not).
This leaves only one possibility, which would be very interesting:
the male of spodopteroides.

Spodopteroides is often not as dark as given by Chvala et al.: the hind tibia is clearly reddish in most specimens I've seen. The antenna is rather reddish for this species.
I have never seen the male of spodopteroides, so the ID is not more than tentative.

From what locality / habitat was the fly ?


Theo

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Collected with malaise trap in the gorges of the Ardèche (07), in the vegetation "garrigue".

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Could be. Spodopteroides is a mountain species, but also found in the valleys in the mountains. I think Ardeche could qualify.

Since I have never seen the male, I cannot give more certainty.

Theo