Off Rucker Cyn Rd, near junction with Arizona SR-80 between Douglas and the NM border, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
July 23, 2013
Found this on a nice, small, shrubby, yellow-flowered composite (didn't have time to key it). It was in the bowl of a large man-made livestock reservoir in the desert (originally bull-dozed...but becoming "naturalized"). See
Google Maps link here.
At first glance in the field, the large antennae made me excitedly blurt out "Mydid!"...as I had mydids on the mind. After taking the single hasty shot seen here, it flew nearby to the ground where Alice Abela got a
shot. It then flew up again and the violently gusting wind immediately carried it far beyond where we could reasonably track it (although we tried anyway :-)
After viewing the images on our camera displays, we realized it wasn't a mydid...but more likely a stratiomyid. (I was just off by the prefix, "stratio-" and an extra "d" :-)
Alice sent me a message this evening suggesting
Hermetia comstocki. Knowing her, she's probably right. All the BG posts are from AZ, mostly Cochise County...and many are certainly a good visual match. Still, it would be nice to go through the MND key, and/or other references to check things out (at least for me). And/or to hear from an expert...ideally with mention of some characters that are diagnostic (and/or ref's I could follow up on).
I'm intrigued by the two stoutly hair-like protuberances at the tip of the abdomen (cerci, or...? See
full-size version). Also, I'm wondering if this is a female? The eyes are dichoptic...but they appear dichoptic on every current BugGuide
Hermetia comstocki post...so I'm guessing that's probably not sufficient to diagnose this as a female.