Micropezidae - Stilt-legged Fly? - Micropeza corrigiolata

More widespread than this

John Klymko, co-ordinator of the Maritimes Butterfly Atlas, made the following comment:

Saw the thread on BNB [Birding New Brunswick] about the micropezid you found for PEI, nice record!. That species is common here in Sackville [in southern NB near the border with NS] in vegetable gardens where they seem to take to the beans and peas. When I first encountered them last year I didn't know what sort of micropezid they were so I sent Morgan Jackson, with whom I did my MSc, some specimens and he concluded they were the introduced species. The species must also be present in NS, and is probably in Maine as well.

… Christopher Adam, 29 September, 2011 - 1:14pm

Moved

Moved from Micropeza.

… Beatriz Moisset, 28 September, 2011 - 10:02am

Moved

Moved from Stilt-legged Flies.

… Christopher Adam, 28 September, 2011 - 9:31am

Micropezidae

Hi Chris, you're correct, this is a micropezid. It's a European species (Micropeza corrigiolata) which was only recorded from New Brunswick as far as I know, so this is an important record. This species is considered a minor pest of peas.

… Morgan Jackson, 27 September, 2011 - 2:54pm

Non-native

Morgan: can you please tell us a little more about this species and how this image was IDed? I want to add it to List of non-natives. Thanks.
Chris, if you have other images, it may worth adding them.

… Beatriz Moisset, 28 September, 2011 - 9:51am

Micropeza corrigiolata (L.)

This is the only Micropeza species known to occur in eastern Canada, and is morphologically distinct from North American native species (male lacks genital graspers, head and body nearly entirely black). Although widespread in Europe, it had only been recorded from 2 localities in New Brunswick (St. John & Moncton areas).

Hoebeke, E.R., & Wheeler A.R. 1993. Micropeza corrigiolata (L.), a Eurasian stilt-legged fly (Diptera: Micropezidae) new to North America: redescription, geographic distribution, and bionomics. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 96 p. 466-470

Available on the BHL here

… Morgan Jackson, 28 September, 2011 - 10:30am

Thanks

Great!

… Beatriz Moisset, 28 September, 2011 - 10:41am