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Dear members,

A little fly with beautiful eyes.
Found 30.9.10 garden in Lower Austria,near Vienna.

Thank You for ID

Margarita Auer

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it's Calliopum sp.

either aeneum or simillimum. one needs to see genitalia to tell apart

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BTW, I have never seen a Calliopum or any other Lauxaniidae visiting flowers, I think.

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I didn't notice that - too interested in the fly. Yes generally Lauxaniidae are flies of shady places. I get a few when sweeping flower meadow, notably Sapromyza basalis and the odd Calliopum. but I am never sure if they are there for the flowers, or in the grasses?

Specific Lauxaniidae habitat preferences don't seem to be as well recorded as they should be. I for one, would welcome and notes on this

Mark

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[Thanks a lot Mark

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I suspect this is simillimum...

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Hi Paul

not that I doubt you, why do you think simillimum?

as I can only seperate these on genitalia.

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There are some other characters, including different dust patterns on the head. Hence I think simillimum.

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I've collected many lauxaniids on flowers. Yes, usually they are on leaves in forests, etc., but not uncommon on flowers. Some - such as the New World genus Pseudocalliope - are found in flowers most of the time - specifically on Yucca.

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Okay, Steve, but here, in Europe, I cannot remember to have seen any Lauxaniid on flowers, nor Meiosimyza, not Sapromyza or Lauxania, or Calliopum, Homoneura, Minettia. Or I collected them indeed on leaves, on branches, in grass, sometimes on half rotten fruits in trees (!), or by sweeping or on light.

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Well, the picture does not show it feeding on pollen or nectar so it may just have been sitting on the petal.

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Sure, exactly what I noticed!