Thick-headed Fly - Physocephala furcillata

Moved

Moved from Thick-headed Flies.

This is indeed in the genus Physocephala...as seen from the dark "T" on the frons; together with the basally swollen hind femora; antennal segment proportions; small theca of this female; and (somewhat hard to discern) wing venation details.

The general dark brown to blackish-maroon color...together with the entirely black cheek here and the lack of conspicuous yellowish-beige humeral dashes; indicate either P. tibialis or P. furcillata.

P. tibialis

P. furcillata

Those are the two most commonly encountered Physocephala species in the northeast. And the further north and east one gets on our continent...the more P. tibialis dwindle leaving only P. furcillata (until you get too far north for any Physocephala at all).

In the image here the discal cell of the left wing can be seen to be hyaline, which narrows this down to P. furcillata.

If you have any frontal shots of the face, you should find that the facial grooves are white...a key character of this species. (The facial grooves are indicated by the label "fg" in this image, which shows a different species, where they're dark brown. The facial grooves are black in tibialis.)

P. burgessi is a western species, and is typically brick-red rather than blackish. The individual here looks more maroon-tinged than the typical P. furcillata, so I can see how Jeff thought it matched the unusually dsrk P. burgessi in the thumbnail he referred to.

… Aaron Schusteff, 9 January, 2016 - 12:46am

Thank you

Aaron,

Thank you for the information, my educated guess was based on visual recognition, but keys are much safer!

I possibly could have moved it to genus level, but I thought maybe it would be more visible at family level.

… Jeff Brown, 10 January, 2016 - 7:51pm

Thank you for all your effort

Thank you for all your effort and information. It is greatly appreciated.

… Don Magnusson, 9 January, 2016 - 6:27am

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

It would like you to think it is a wasp!

It is a female of one the Thick-headed Flies, Conopidae.

It appears near to Physocephala burgessi, but another should confirm.

Compare:

… Jeff Brown, 6 January, 2016 - 7:35am

Thank you Jeff.

… Don Magnusson, 6 January, 2016 - 8:21am