---

I need help with this one. I found it in July in Southern Limburg (the Netherlands) on a chalk grassland. Problem is, that she was sitting on some Centaurea sp, which is not her hostplant. I think the wingpattern doesn't fit for T. crepidis and T. matricariae usually has only two spots around r-m.

Ben

---

Its abdominal setae are poorly visible, and wing pattern does not say much, but my guess is T. ruralis Lw., which can be expected on dry slopes with Hieracium.

---

Thanks Valery,

I will try to make a clearer view of the abdomen the next time I see the fly.

Ben

---

Ben: the best is the dead fly, but T. ruralis females usually have red oviscape (here it is shining black), so we are back to the matricariae , which is associated with Crepis taraxacifolia. I wonder if John Smit have recorded it from the Netherlands.

---

Dear Valery,

T. matricariae is known from the Netherlands. Here are a few pictures of which I thought it were T. matricariae. But your comment that wingpattern doesn't count much makes me hesitate.
I find them rather easy during wintertime (so not at the hostplant) at the edge of a forest with chalk grassland nearby (first picture). Last week I saw at three different days several of them resting and feeding at Cirsium arvense (last two pictures). All of them have last notopleural bristle white

Ben

---

I'd say all your flies are T. matricariae : anal lobe with well-defined dark pattern, p npl white, 2-4 white dots around r-m crossvein; the only flies they could be misIDied are ruralis (when abdomen is not visible) or conura (if p npl is not visible, but this one is clearly more mountain species occurring in Germany and North).

---

Thanks Valery,

Tephritis ruralis seems to be very rare in the Netherlands : Only one found (2008) in the last decades.

Ben