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Photo#277838
Neacreotrichus diversus Coquillett, 1894 -- female - Neacreotrichus diversus - female

Neacreotrichus diversus Coquillett, 1894 -- female - Neacreotrichus diversus - Female
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, San Diego County, California, USA
April 25, 2009
Size: BL ~ 4.1
This beautiful little fly was on Desert Chicory (Raphinesquia neomexicana, Asteraceae) at Vallecito Ranch in The Park. Several chicories were in bloom and some had this little fly on them. This fly was the largest I photographed at about 4.1 mm. A couple of others were only 3.5 mm.
It seems like it should be a bee fly, but I cannot find the exact wing venation in Hull's Bee Flies of the World. The closest I get is Phthiria (Numbers 308 and 314), but the veins are not so straight and sharply angled. Any help is much appreciated.

Update: Identified to species and sex by Neal Evenhuis

Moved
Moved from Phthiriinae.

Protocol for new additions to the guide...
Hi Lynn,

First of all, let me say "congratulations" on getting an ID for this lovely fly! I assume that you must have corresponded with Dr. Evenhuis via e-mail?

I am just about to create a new page for your image, but I need to take a moment to tell you how important it is that you utilize the Requests for Additional Guide Pages section of the forum when you see that there is not currently a page to house your images. In this case, we need not only a new species page, but an entire new genus! If you have time to do nothing else, please add any important updates to your post in the form of an actual comment which you add to the post. This will send an e-mail notification to anyone who is subscribed to your post (which, in this case, would have at least alerted myself and Joel Kits). When you make edits to the text of the post itself, it does not notify or alert anyone! I just happened to notice your ID note while randomly browsing through images.

 
Neotrichus diversus
I came across an illustration that looked very much like this bee fly in one of Neil Evenhaus's publications. So I did email him to ask if it was the same. It was not, but he was kind enough to ID it.

Now, to the technical aspects of BugGuide, which I do not understand very well. I wondered where to put the update. Now I know, probably both places! Thanks for advising me.

I did not know that Requests for Additional Guide Pages existed. I'm still on dial-up modem, which is extremely slow, and so I tend not to explore all possibilities of a site. If I'm lucky enough to get a new genus again, I'll try to figure it out. Again, Thanks.

Phthiriinae
This is something in the Phthiriinae, probably Neacreotrichus or Poecilognathus; both were split off of Phthiria since Hull's book was published, and there are no longer any Phthiria s.str. in North America.

 
Phthiriinae
Thanks, Joel, for this ID and for clarifying the taxonomic situation! It's much appreciated.

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