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Photo#1398062
sepsid - Themira - male

sepsid - Themira - Male
North Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
June 24, 2017
Keys out to Themira using the MND key (1). Found quite a few of these displaying and mating atop an apparently delectable goose dropping.
I’d appreciate confirmation/correction of the ID. Thanks in advance

Images of this individual: tag all
sepsid - Themira - male sepsid - Themira - male sepsid - Themira - male sepsid - Themira - male sepsid - Themira - male sepsid - Themira - male

Size?
How big was this fly? Consider Themira lohmanus Ang, 2017 (not yet published when you took the photo), which loves goose droppings. ZooKeys 698:95-111.

 
very roughly
the body is 3.4mm and the wings 2.7mm. Those are estimates from the macro lens EXIF data and no better than ±10% and maybe worse. I wasn't photographing the images taken under the microscope against a ruler at that time.
Thanks for the reference. This fly seems a little smaller than what's given in the paper. I'll keep my eyes on the neighborhood goose poops for more flies. That's one way to enforce social distancing...

Moved

Moved
Moved from Flies.

Maybe Themira flavixoca
Maybe Themira flavixoca

 
seems to fit
Melander & Spuler's original description of T. flavicoxa (1). However, the details visible on the back of the fore femur and tibia aren't really clear enough to nail it and I don't know how much to trust that 100 year old key.

 
thanks
I was thinking along the same lines having seen that description on Sepsidnet. Unfortunately, my attempt at softening the specimen to stretch it out just resulted in mold.

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