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Photo#1506329
Tephritidae:Trupanea actinobola - Trupanea vicina - female

Tephritidae:Trupanea actinobola - Trupanea vicina - Female
Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, California, USA
April 2, 2018
Size: +/-5mm
In E Section of Rohnert Park; on sweet alyssum flowers; weak sun; slight haze; 3-5 mph; 73d F.

Images of this individual: tag all
Tephritidae:Trupanea actinobola - Trupanea vicina - female Tephritidae:Trupanea actinobola - Trupanea vicina - female

Moved
Moved from Trupanea.

Keying to Species in the Genus Trupanea
This is from the key linked on the genus page. (1) (1960)
Note: some of the labeling may be confusing. For example vein M3+Cu1 = CuA1 and cell R = cell br (...in other texts)
(Key to females)
1) - Wing with preapical dark area in distal third or half of cell R3 and basal half of cell R5, with narrow dark rays diverging from it to margins ........... 2
2) - Dark ray connecting stigma with vein r-m much narrower than length of stigma, sometimes completely absent ........... 4
4) - One dark ray through cell 1st M2; in addition, sometimes a spot near middle of that cell and a dark spot in line with it on vein M3+Cu1, [CuA1] or with other markings within cell proximal to distal ray ........... 10
10) - Hyaline spot immediately anterior to vein m rounded anteriorly and rarely exceeding posterior two-thirds of cell R5 ........... 11
11) - Distal end of cell R definitely infuscated in addition to narrow band along vein r-m ........... 18
18) - Apex of cell R with dark even infuscation similar to that in base of cell R5; proximal border sharply delimited ........... vicina (Van der Wulp 1899)

Description:
The most distinctive feature of this wing pattern is the extensive evenly dark nonareolate infuscation in the apex of cell R [br] and the characteristic manner in which the dark ray through the stigma tends to run into it rather than more obliquely to vein r-m.
In addition, the marginal hyaline spot at the apex of vein R2+3 is more or less centered in the dark area on each side of it.
This image shows the wing patterns very nicely: ♀

Distribution:
Orizaba and Gulf of California (Mex.) California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

 
T. actinobola
Please note Fig. 25, p 823, Manual of Nearctic Diptera, Vol. 2; this is T. actinobola, don't you think?

 
Maybe
I'm not sure that we can completely rule out Trupanea vicina in this case. I'm not an expert on this genus. (...yet) Most of the examples of that species are from the eastern range.
Please compare: ♀ (CA) That image may or may not be misplaced, but I'm not sure what we should be looking for, to distinguish the correct species here. They are very similar anyway: ♀ (IL) Trupanea actinobola

The page that you referenced is part of a general Key-to-Genera and may not be adequate for determining the exact species.
If you check the Key-to-Species (1) Page 29, figures 24 & 25, you will see that these two species really are very similar.

 
T. actinobola
Of course it's a key to genera; however, if you look, you'll see that the illustration to which I refer is of T. actinobola's wing--and it's a ringer for the wing of the fly in the photograph I submitted. That's ringer as in identical down to the last detail--the reason for selecting the pair of photographs that I submitted was to illustrate this fact.

I am back and out of the hospital: this fly is T. vacina. Thanks everybody for not listeing to me! And an especial thanks to Bob Biagi.

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