Thick headed fly ? - Physocephala texana

Moved

Moved from Physocephala burgessi.

This is definitely P. texana...both the original 1882 description of P. burgessi by Williston and Van Duzee's 1927 description of the synonymous P. brevirostis clearly indicate that P. burgessi has black anterior coxa and a uniformly reddish cheek. And, in the discussion of P. burgessi in the 1957 reference by Camras & Hurd(1), the authors emphasize that:

"Most individuals are quite uniform and are readily distinguishable from texana. The majority of the questionable specimens have yellow coxae and prove to be aberrant texana. The shade of reddish is darker in burgessi and distinguishes most of the specimens at a glance."

This conopid's right anterior coxa is evidently yellow (visible behind, and directly adjacent to, the back of the eye in the image above)...and what is visible of the cheek is white. The reddish cheek of P. burgessi usually extends forward enough so that it would be apparent in the portion of the cheek visible here...again compare with the post below, in light of the quote above:

… Aaron Schusteff, 29 December, 2013 - 11:09am

Moved

Moved from Physocephala texana.

… v belov, 21 September, 2013 - 8:06am

Physocephala burgessi

… Trevor Burt, 21 September, 2013 - 7:14am

Trevor, what leads you to P. burgessi here?

Although P. texana is known to be exceedingly variable, note that in the reference...

Camras, Sidney. (1957). A Review of the New World Physocephala, Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am., 50(3):213-218

...regarding P. burgessi, it's stated on pg. 213 that:

"This species is relatively uniform and readily distinguished from P. texana by the combination of entirely dark cheek and black anterior coxa."

The anterior coxa in this post doesn't appear black, and the visible portion of the cheek is white...not the darker reddish of typical P. burgessi, as seen in the post below:

What characters or criteria led you to conclude this was burgessi rather than texana?

… Aaron Schusteff, 22 December, 2013 - 5:16am

Moved

Moved from Physocephala.

Yellow anterior coxa; three black stripes on dorsum of thorax.

… Aaron Schusteff, 13 June, 2013 - 2:06am

Moved

Moved from Thick-headed Flies.

… Martin Hauser, 10 July, 2011 - 1:06am

Moved

Moved from Flies.

… Eric R. Eaton, 6 December, 2007 - 4:23pm

Yes, it's a thick-headed fly

See that small "ping pong paddle" shaped thing in front of the wing? Those are called halteres and are found only on flies.

… Ron Hemberger, 28 October, 2007 - 7:32pm