Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Robber fly ID

Posted by Toby on 31-03-2007 23:51
#1

can you tell from underside which sp. this is? Richmond Pk, SW London. June. Looking through the gallery i'm guessing a Dioctria sp.?

www.pbase.com/racketman/image/62391725.jpg

Edited by Toby on 01-04-2007 00:09

Posted by Toby on 01-04-2007 00:10
#2

think I may have now found it in BioImages using the Dioctria lead. D. baumhaueri?

Edited by Toby on 01-04-2007 00:11

Posted by Danny Wolff on 01-04-2007 18:59
#3

Should be Dioctria atricapilla (legs completely black, wings partly darkened ...). Prey looks like a Leptogaster.

Greetings, Danny

Posted by Toby on 01-04-2007 19:42
#4

mmmh, I think this side view might support D. baumhaueri - see http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P3/P39395.php

www.pbase.com/racketman/image/61815861.jpg

Posted by Danny Wolff on 02-04-2007 18:15
#5

Well, if you are sure that it is the same specimen (having lost its prey and changed its resting place?), then you are right with D. baumhaueri, which we call D. hyalipennis in Central Europe. (Curious that nothing of the pale leg-colour is to be seen in your first image). Such dark hyalipennis are very seldom in Central Europe.

Greetings, Danny

Posted by Paul Beuk on 02-04-2007 19:31
#6

They are not the same species (leg coloours are off). Top is atricapilla, bottom is hyalipennis (= baumhaueri).

Posted by Kahis on 02-04-2007 19:34
#7

The females are not conspecific. While most of the yellow could be hidden in the first picture, some parts (base of femora and trochanters) are clearly yellow on the anterior face on the 2nd fly, but black on the 1st.

Posted by Toby on 02-04-2007 21:20
#8

my mistake the images were captured two weeks apart. Thanks for the IDs.