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Photo#1017539
microdon - Microdon globosus

microdon - Microdon globosus
Hobe Sound, FL, Florida, USA
December 20, 2013
found in scrub habitat

Images of this individual: tag all
microdon - Microdon globosus microdon - Microdon globosus microdon - Microdon globosus - female

Moved
Moved from Syrphid Flies.

Very lovely images!Looks
Very lovely images!

Looks like Microdon (Microdon) to me, but I'm having some trouble telling which species. For now, I've keyed it to Microdon globosus, but see below...

Looking at Thompson 1981's key (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55215#page/758/mode/2up)...

abdomen is broad, not green, eye bare, so jump to #4.

To me it looks like the propleuron is not haired - the hairs seem to be from the head? - and I don't see a hair patch on the sternopleuron, but not sure if those hairs count as spines on the scutellum (e.g. tristis is supposed to have notable spines, but the image we have here doesn't show them as different from the hairs). Scutellum certainly is emarginate.

So then I would tend to go to couplet 5. The antennal profile doesn't fit fuscipennis, so couplet 6. I can't see the alula, but the scutellum seems fairly emarginate (and the antennae are wrong for adventitius and abditus). Here the antennal profile and range fit globosus quite well, but the color seems a bit off - they seem to usually be overall reddish brown rather than black.

If we instead opt that the scutellar hairs count as spines, let's jump to couplet 14. To my eye, this image is showing a reduced first abdominal sternum, and that - combined with the notably bare eye and orange legs - gives us diversipilosus. But that species shouldn't range south of NC. Suppose then that I am wrong and the sternum is in fact well-developed. We can skip merrily past couplets 17 (antennae don't fit), 18 (clearly some golden rather than black hair on this fly), and this fly clearly isn't megalogaster because those guys look like tiny bumblebees! Skip past #21 as well - the antennae and leg coloration are wrong for tristis.

Let's suppose there is actually a sternopleural hair patch. I certainly see no dark hair on the legs, and tibial hair is short, so perhaps abstrusus? But their range ends in VA. If we agree there's no sternopleural hair patch (such that we're at #27), it's clearly not golden furry all over. Legs are orange, so we're left with cothurnatus. Fortunately, there are some images of that species here:

http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=384203

but they also look wrong, and again the range ends in NC.

So globosus it seems to be, but I'm going to see if Jeff Skevington has an opinion on this guy!

Neat :^)


[edited to add: I figured Thompson's use out - the scutellar spines are the projections coming off of the apex of the scutellum, if any. This fly seems to have an emarginate scutellum, but no spines, so we can skip everything after couplet 8, making me more certain it's Microdon globosus]

 
Thanks!
Thanks for the ID!

Moved for expert attention
Moved from ID Request.

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