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Could it be Eliozeta ? By Gonzalo Sancho (cut, not reduced, from here http://www.biodiv...15270.html )

- NE Spain, Zaragoza
- Mediterranean wood, 469m
- 4. june'09

Thankls again

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Either Eliozeta or Clytiomya - I haven't seen enough of these for it to be easy from photos :)

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thanks :)

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I'd say Eliozeta pellucens...

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thanks :)

- edit: i thought Eliozeta too but i"felt" it had a narrow frons as Clitiomyia
there are 4 species here:

Clytiomyia continua
Clytiomyia dupuisi
Clytiomyia mesnili
Clytiomyia sola

But i have onlye keys/description for C. continua, so i didn´t dare (?), there are a lot of tachinids i still haven't seen
thanks :)

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It is NOT pellucens, since the arista is thickened at base only.
It does not seem to be E. helluo, the parafrontals are not that golden yellow in this specimen.That means we are running out of Eliozeta and therefore it is most likely to be a male Clytiomyia (by negative ID).

Theo

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For such lovely, brightly-coloured flies I always have amazing trouble with them - the 2 genera are very similar indeed. It's probably one of those groups that needs a good series of each species before they 'click'.

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Forget about the genera and make a combined key in your head.

Than afterwards you can always check if the genus corresponds with the species.


Theo

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That's probably a very good idea - similar to the way that Belshaw treats some genera groups. Do you have such a key in your head that you could write here? :D

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in my head yes

write yes

now: no, sometime later

Theo

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OK, I have done the difficult bit ... I have started it:

1. Arista thickened beyond half its length ... Eliozeta pellucens

- Arista thickened for less than half its length ... 2

2. ...

:D

Are there more than 3 species to factor into the key? Can couplet 2 split the rest on katepisternals/sternopleurals 2 or 3?

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Thank you all very much :)

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Add to point one

third antennal segment elongated, more than 1.5 x as long as wide -> pellucens
shorter -> 2

You're doing great, Chris, looking forward to point 2 (suggestion: hairs on pleurae white -> sola group)

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I'm looking forward to point 2 too :D

I forgot about the sola group ... now it's bringing back horrible memories of wading through Clytiomya keys and scratching my head ;)

The white hairs on pleura feature was the one that confused me ... I never could work out whether the hairs on mine were white enough or in exactly the right place ... probably need illustrating.