Dancing by dog droppings - Mycetaulus longipennis

Moved

Moved from Mycetaulus. The Northeastern location, hyaline costal cell and dark head point to M. longipennis.

… Chris Angell, 1 March, 2024 - 12:03pm

Moved

Moved from Tephritoidea.

… Spencer Pote, 29 September, 2020 - 4:15pm

Moved

Moved from Black Scavenger Flies.

… John F. Carr, 26 September, 2020 - 10:14am

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Jonas Insinga, 25 September, 2020 - 11:05pm

tricky one

more likely

I could be wrong but I don't think the black spot at the end of the wing ever covers R4+5 in sepsids

… Steve Scholnick, 26 September, 2020 - 11:06am

Seems like it!

I had encountered sepsids on this same trip and was under the impression this was just a different species, but while it's curious that Mycetaulus would be at dung given these flies' preferences for decaying animal fats, the fact that the droppings in question likely came from a dog (something ostensibly carnivorous) makes this less odd.

… Jonas Insinga, 26 September, 2020 - 5:53pm

it does look a lot like

a sepsid. I've looked at a couple of McAlpine references on Piophilidae but haven't found anything about Mycetaulus being attracted to dung. Apparently, Mycetaulus breed in "rotting fungi" (1).
I haven't found any references on the web focused on this genus but I haven't gone through the reference list of the paper below

McAlpine, J.F. 1977. A revised classification of the Piophilidae, including ‘Neottiophilidae’ and ‘Thyreophoridae’ (Diptera: Schizophora). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, 103: 1–66.

… Steve Scholnick, 27 September, 2020 - 4:46pm

Mycetaulus

This is definitely Mycetaulus, but not sure of the species; definitely a group that needs a bit of a closer look by a systemat!

… Spencer Pote, 29 September, 2020 - 4:14pm