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Photo#26653
Wasp mimic Robber Fly - Ceraturgus fasciatus

Wasp mimic Robber Fly - Ceraturgus fasciatus
Milan, Coos County, New Hampshire, USA
August 1, 2005
Size: approx. 20-25mm

Images of this individual: tag all
Wasp mimic Robber Fly - Ceraturgus fasciatus Wasp mimic Robber Fly - Ceraturgus fasciatus Wasp mimic Robber Fly - Ceraturgus fasciatus

Moved
Moved from Ceraturgus cruciatus. See comments below.

Ceraturgus
Absolutely lovely shot of Ceraturgus cruciatus. One of the great genera of robbers. All the rest of the species are rare. This one is just fairly common. Top knotch photo.

 
C. fasciatus?
I was looking at this reference:
Barnes, J. (2008). Review of the genus Ceraturgus Wiedemann (Diptera: Asilidae) in North America north of Mexico. Zootaxa 1766: 1–45 (PDF)
Barnes reports C. cruciatus from the upper Midwest only, and the similar C. fasciatus from the Northeast only. On p. 24, he says:
The northeastern C. fasciatus is readily distinguished from the more western C. cruciatus by the deep golden pollinose face and bronze mystax (white to pale yellow pollinose face and white to pale golden mystax in C. cruciatus); black or dark brown hair-like setae on postgena, stipes, and plapi (white in C. cruciatus); absent or poorly developed pale pollinose spots mesad to the postpronotal lobes (well developed in C. cruciatus); mostly polished black male abdominal sternites with narrow, medially divided, yellow pollinose bands along the posterior margin (mostly white pollinose sternites in male C. cruciatus).

I can see the differences in the face between this specimen from New Hampshire and the other one here, from Wisconsin, so looks like this is C. fasciatus, according to the information in Barnes' paper.
(I went ahead and moved them--this seems to be pretty well documented, and the two were originally described as separate species.)

 
Thanks Herschel
I didn't know robbers could look like this. But I'm still fairly new at this, so I'm sure there are many others out there that will surprise me. Now to find another species in this genus.

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