Thread subject: Diptera.info :: unknown chloropidae

Posted by Mario Renden on 03-01-2023 22:03
#1

I took a picture of this unknown chloropidae on 1st January 2023 in Den Helder, Netherlands.

Can someone tell me which species is this?

Thanks a lot.

Greetings,
Mario Renden

Posted by Roger Thomason on 04-01-2023 01:08
#2

Elachiptera sp. Maybe Elachiptera brevipennis

Posted by von Tschirnhaus on 05-01-2023 11:48
#3

Chloropidae, Oscinellinae: Elachiptera brevipennis (Meigen, 1830). A detailed article on this peculiar species with its interesting historic taxonomy since Napoleon's war in Spain and with two photographs: Nartshuk, E.P. & von Tschirnhaus, M. (2012): New generic synomyms in Chloropidae (Diptera, Acalyptratae). - Zootaxa 3267: 44-54. A very similar undescribed brachypterous species is living (as a Tertiary relict?) on Mt. Kilimanjaro, see: von Tschirnhaus, M. (2017): The taxonomy of species globally described in or formerly included in the genus Elachiptera and new combinations with Lasiochaeta and Gampsocera (Diptera: Chloropidae). - Zoosystematica rossica 26(2): 337-368.

Posted by weia on 06-01-2023 00:23
#4

Really? It looks so different from other pictures. The wings look 'secondary absent' here, broken of.

Posted by von Tschirnhaus on 10-01-2023 17:34
#5

"weia's" doubt is justified! The thorax is too dark compared with E. brevipennis, and it is also too long, distinctly longer than wide. Moreover the head is not wider than the thorax, different from brevipennis with its big head; and the scutellum is slightly longer than the short one of brevipennis. I have seen thousands of Elachiptera cornuta and its probably undescribed sympatric sibling species with its larger epandrium and with further differences of the male genitalia. As E. cornuta has several synonyms, types not yet revised in the 20th and 21st century, it is uncertain if its sibling species already has a scientific name. Among all those E. cornuta sensu lato in my collection, none had broken wings. No chloropid worldwide is known to brake off its own wings (like males and queens of ants and termites). This case might be a rare exception and the identification of this female belonging in the cornuta-group (of Nartshuk & Andersson 2013: 92, 94] is impossible.

Edited by von Tschirnhaus on 10-01-2023 17:42

Posted by Mario Renden on 11-01-2023 09:01
#6

Thanks a lot.

Greetings,
Mario