Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#577426
Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas

Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas
Pacific Crest Trail north of summit of Buck's Lake Road., Plumas County, California, USA
July 18, 2011
This is an interesting new genus for me. I keyed it to family in MND(1) and Cole(2)...getting to Syrphidae. But I was convinced that I must have made a error...as the large-ish size and overall look somehow struck me as "un-syrphid-like". (Perhaps if I had gotten a good shot of wing venation, and seen a "spurious vein", I would have been persuaded earlier.)

So after following all sorts of alternate (family) key break choices, and exploring many other families for a possible fit...I finally(!) realizied I should just see what happened if I tried to go through a key to genera for Syrphidae. Both MND(1) and Cole(2) led to Brachyopa, and images on BugGuide were a very good match. (At least I learned a bit about a number of other families from my erroneous resistance to the idea that this could be a syrphid :-)

The fly was nectaring on the abundantly flowering Prunus emarginata.

Images of this individual: tag all
Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas Keyed to Brachyopa - Brachyopa gigas

Moved
Moved from Brachyopa.