Bee Fly filling 'Sand Chamber'? - Villa

A bit more info after 5+ years

I'm fairly convinced that this has been referred to as Anthrax muscaria (see Coquillett's original 1892 description here), and later Villa muscaria (see Painter(1926)), before it was given the replacement name of Villa myximyia (cf. pg. 506 of Evenhuis & Greathead(1)(2015), or Evenhuis(1978)).

The individual here goes to A. muscaria in Coquillett's 1892 key and is in excellent agreement with his original description for that species here.

In keys clearly to Villa muscaria in Painter(1926), where the principal key character given there is "median longitudinal yellow tomentose stripe across the center of the thorax". That median longitudinal stripe is unfortunately obscured by the pin (and perhaps somewhat abraded?) in the type specimen and these dorsal and lateral images from the Villa page of the Spencer Entomological Collections at the Univ. of British Columbia.

Again, per Evenhuis & Greathead(1)(2015), it appears the proper current name is V. myximyia

… Aaron Schusteff, 18 January, 2016 - 2:18pm

Moved

Moved from Villini.

… Keith Bayless, 1 December, 2010 - 5:36pm

Moved

Moved from Bee Flies.

… Aaron Schusteff, 18 November, 2010 - 7:32pm

Beautiful photos, Aaron...

I'd guess Villa too. :-)

… Harsi S. Parker, 18 November, 2010 - 2:54am

Thanks, Harsi :-)

I really tried to work through those keys!

It felt like I was making good progress...passing through lots of couplets in getting to tribe Villini. But there are a whole lot of genera in that tribe, so the couplets just keep on coming at you!! :-)

Beyond tribe Villini, the key characters start to focus on details that (for the most part) I didn't capture in my images. So the only hope I see of getting further with an ID is through the experience of someone who has very detailed knowledge of gestalt and/or other distinctive characters that (for whatever reason) might not have made it into the keys I was working with. Such characters are often present, as keys frequently focus on subsets of characters sequenced to separate out and order particular groupings of taxa, clumped by the choices dictated by a particular parsing chosen for the given key, and often neglecting to mention other (perhaps distinctive & useful) characters not relevant to that chosen parsing.

In particular, the wing venation on this gal seemed distinctive to me. Maybe that, and/or patterning of color, hairs, etc, will be helpful? With luck, an expert may recognize something diagnostic here.

… Aaron Schusteff, 18 November, 2010 - 7:27pm

Echoed, both ways

And yes, she's filling up with sand.

… Ron Hemberger, 18 November, 2010 - 9:37am

Good (...good) To Hear (...hear)

Thanks Ron :-) I bet you've seen that sand-filling behavior before. I'll mark it as a female...and move it, at least to Villini.

… Aaron Schusteff, 18 November, 2010 - 7:30pm

It is certainly Villa.

… Andy Calderwood, 1 December, 2010 - 9:51am

Thanks for Confirmation, Andy

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… Aaron Schusteff, 2 December, 2010 - 8:14pm

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… Aaron Schusteff, 2 December, 2010 - 8:14pm