Syrphus opinator

The Bulletin of United States

The Bulletin of United States Geological Survey - page 324, describes the male Syrphus opinator as having hind femora black, accept at tip and the thorax metallic bluish green and the scutellum with black pile. The antennae are described as brown and reddish on underside and the front above the antennae yellow with black hairs and the angle between the eyes greenish black and small brown marks above the antennae.

… Bill Dean, 21 December, 2014 - 1:55am

ID?

Did Dr. Thompson ID all these images (S.opinator?) or just one? I see that they were collected at three different times and two are males and the other a female. It would be nice if you explained which ones were IDed by Dr. Thompson.

… Beatriz Moisset, 3 March, 2010 - 7:57am

My ID

I identified it from this comment.

… Alice Cavette, 3 March, 2010 - 11:43am

I read that comment

What I was trying to know: did you show him this image along with the one where the comment was posted? Does his comment apply to all three images placed now in opinator? If not, maybe it wouldn't hurt to show him this one and the other, just to be sure. These flies are so tricky!

… Beatriz Moisset, 3 March, 2010 - 11:55am

MY ID

I identified the 2nd two by reading all the comments on the 1st fly.

I never said on the 2nd two that Chris identified them. I only linked to the comments I based MY id on.

I doubt Chris would appreciate my sending him every image I take.

If you doubt the id, just say so and why. I'll Frass if it is decided these are not opinators.

… Alice Cavette, 3 March, 2010 - 12:44pm

???

Why would anybody want to frass these fine images regardless of taxonomic placement? I asked because I am trying to learn and I will keep asking if I need to. This wouldn't be the first time that an image gets moved to a higher (or different) taxon by an expert; look at this one for instance.
Fortunately, Chris confirmed what he had said before, with a caveat:

"...given that opinator is the common western species and it "appears" that the yellow fasciae (bands) do not reach the lateral margin of the abdomen, I was happy to call them opinator. It is the best guess on the basis of the available information. However there are other characters such as distribution of wing microtrichia, eye pilosity, femoral coloration, etc., which can not be seen in the images, so a positive identification is impossible".

It is useful to know this, especially since we have so few images of this species. Do you have any more? Maybe some show the difficult to see characters, eye hairs or leg color.

BTW, you have a very nice gallery of syrphids in your website. I wish we had something similar in the East Coast; either you or Ron should come for a visit.

… Beatriz Moisset, 5 March, 2010 - 7:51am

Thank you for your efforts...

Beatriz, Thanks for having Chris review the photos.

I have other photos showing the eyes, but I have both Syrphus and Eupeodes around and I haven't gotten shots showing BOTH eyes and margins. So I don't post them...

I have a slideshow of Eupeodes on my site if you click on the "Hover Fly Photos" link.

I'll post all my Syrphus possibilities on a special page and post a link to it. Hope that helps...

… Alice Cavette, 5 March, 2010 - 12:30pm