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Photo#1320272
Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens

Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens
Crag Mountain, Northfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, USA
September 17, 2016
Size: 6 mm

Images of this individual: tag all
Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens - female Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens Syrphid on Epifagus virginiana - Platycheirus coerulescens

Moved
Moved from Platycheirus.

Thanks for adding the facial shot, that really helped!

1: female -> 79
79: anterior corner intermediate... will try both -> 80, 105

105: some tergites with pale spots -> 108
108: some femora black -> 109
109: all femora black -> aeratus, but can't be due to range

80: no obvious patterns in pollinosity -> 81
81: abdomen mostly dark -> 83
83: markings not confluent -> 85
85: scutum pile all pale -> 86
86: pile short, pleuron pollinoseish -> 87
87: 88
88: scutum shining -> 89
89: triangles weakly present -> 97
97: tergites with smaller spots and pollinose overlay -> 98
98: difficult to judge -> coerulescens or 99, but 99 terminates in clearly incorrect species, and the particular "color overlay" pattern of the abdominal spots looks very much like P. coerulescens

Moved
Moved from Syrphid Flies.

Bill Dean agreed this is a Platycheirus (see first photo).

Weird - I want to say this is
Weird - I want to say this is Platycheirus, but if I key it out in the Young 2016 key to Nearctic Platycheirus I keep getting P. aeratus, which is a strictly western species... maybe it is an oddly marked Melanostoma instead? But the face and abdominal markings really don't look like Melanostoma...

Key details:

1: females -> 79
79: anterior oral margin smooth -> 105
105: some tergites with pale spots -> 108
108: some/all femora broadly black basally -> 109
109: all femora black basally -> P. aeratus
(if you instead argue that the tergites are dark with silvery markings at #105:
105: tergites entirely dark, sometimes with silver markings -> 106
106: tergites with silver pollinose markings -> 107
107: all femora black basally -> P. aeratus again)

If the anterior margin is not smooth, then this is either P. confusus or P. thylax, hard to judge from the facial shots here.

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