robber fly - Machimus sadyates

Well, Neoitamus and Machimus

are quite similar. Neoitamus would have the hairs coming out from the back of the head near the top of the eyes with a distinct curl forward, which I thought I saw on this one, but I was mistaken. Neoitamus orphne would have all black femora, and all yellow tibiae. But this is a Machimus with all black femora, and only largely yellow tibiae, with patches of black. With black femora, and less than fifty percent of the tibia yellow, this would be Machimus notatus/virginicus. With more than fifty percent, it is sadyates. Is that helpful, or just confusing?

… norman and cheryl lavers, 29 November, 2009 - 12:09pm

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Moved

Moved from Neoitamus orphne.

… norman and cheryl lavers, 16 November, 2009 - 8:08am

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On second thought,

I'm mistaken: This is a Machimus sadyates.

… norman and cheryl lavers, 16 November, 2009 - 8:07am

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Moved

Moved from Robber Flies.

… norman and cheryl lavers, 2 November, 2009 - 11:42am

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This is

Neoitamus orphne, which has not, I believe, been recorded before for Iowa, though Iowa falls within the geographical range of this species.

… norman and cheryl lavers, 2 November, 2009 - 11:38am

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Moved

Moved from ID Request.
Maybe a specialist will see it here.

… Beatriz Moisset, 27 August, 2009 - 9:11pm

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