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Photo#172909
fungus eater - Paraplatypeza - male

fungus eater - Paraplatypeza - Male
Maplewood; South Mountain Reservation, Essex County, New Jersey, USA
July 27, 2005
Size: 2.5 mm
Swept off rotting fungus.
Image taken using Dr. Andy Deans's EntoVision imaging system at the NC State Insect Museum.

The only known eastern species is Paraplatypeza velutina
The quote below is from pg. 57 of Kessel & Maggionclada (1968) [PDF here]:

"Paraplatypeza coraxa (Kessel), new combination, the type species, is known only from the Pacific Coast of North America (Kessel, 1963). In eastern United States this new genus is represented by Paraplatypeza velutina (Loew), new combination, and in the Palaearctic Region by Paraplatypeza atra (Meigen), new combination."
The MND(1), Arnett(2), and ITIS Paraplatypeza page all list just two species in our area. And this 2013 Systema Diptororum page indicates Paraplatypeza velutina is still a valid name, and describes an eastern U.S. range encompassing your locale. So, unless it represents an undescribed species, this is presumably P. velutina.

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