Species Physoconops bulbirostris

Conops bulbirostris Loew 1853 (see also Kröber 1915, and Williston 1882)

Conops sequax Williston 1892 Biologia Centrali-Americana, Diptera, V. 3, Pt. 1, p. 80

From Latin: bulbi = thickened, bulbous; rostr- = beak, rostrum

In his original description, Loew remarked that the proboscis was noticeably thickened at base. In morphological terminology of Diptera, the word "rostrum" refers to the basal portion of the proboscis.

Head: Frons entirely black; cheeks brown-to-black (at least in posterior portion); face, including facial grooves, whitish; proboscis fairly long (reaching end of 2nd antennal segment).

Thorax: Black; two fairly large white, rectangular, pollinose spots at anterior corners of dorsum (i.e. "humeral dashes"); pollinose pleural stripe occupies lower half of pleura only (terminates at suture between upper and lower halves).

Abdomen: Black, with narrow posterior white pollinose bands. In females, theca quite large.

Indiana to New Jersey, s. to Texas and Florida (1) [extending southward to Paraguay...see catalog entree here].

Both P. bulbirostris and (the dark variant of) P. excisus are mostly black and have females with very large thecas. However, Camras (1955) emphasizes (on pg. 171) that P. excisus has a "very distinct uninterrupted postvertical pollinose stripe connecting the postorbitals" (i.e running along the rear edge of the upper half of the head)...whereas in P. bulbirostris, the corresponding stripe is ("usually") interrupted in the middle or absent.

Camras, Sidney (1955), "A Review of the New World Flies of the Genus Conops and Allies (Diptera: Conopidae)", Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 105, pp. 155-187 (Full Text)

Curated image from Barcode Of Life Database web site.