Hi Tim...I presume you're still active on BugGuide (hope so anyway).

Just thought I'd mention a few things here:

1) This can be seen to be a male, from the lack of a conspicuously large bump (i.e. the theca) below the 5th sternite...which is present in females.

2) In your comment from 12/4/08 under the 1st image in the series, you were correct in your interpretation of the "cross vein r-m" character indicating Physocephala rather than Physoconops here. That cross vein can be seen to be about 2/3 the way out along the discal cell (far more than roughly half-way out, as in Physoconops). Another good separating character for those two genera is the presence of the dark "T"-shaped marking on the frons for Physocephala (present in only one species of Physoconops, namely the rare P. nigrimanus...of which we have only one post of a pinned 1903 specimen on BugGuide). Note that the oft-referred-to character of the "irregularly swollen bases of the hind femora" is not especially clear here (as is often the case), so it's good to know additional characters.

3) Your 4th image clearly shows that the facial grooves are white...another character that cinches the species ID of P. furcillata here. Nice to have, since the somewhat unusual far west location here for species furcillata makes further support for the species ID a welcome "check".

Moved from Physocephala texana.

Moved from Physocephala.