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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Small-headed Flies (Acroceridae) » Acrocera
Photo#873640
Acrocera - male
Copyright © 2013 Charley Eiseman

Acrocera - Male
Sturbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
July 11, 2013
Size: 3.4 mm

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Acrocera - male Acrocera - male Acrocera - male
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Contributed by Charley Eiseman on 7 December, 2013 - 7:51pm
Last updated 29 July, 2014 - 3:02pm

ID ideas...either Acrocera convexa or A. obsoleta
Charley, this appears to be a male that is intermediate between the two closely related species A. obsoleta and A. convexa.

Your specimen has the yellow scutellum and pale-yellow (almost whitish) legs of A. convexa, while also having the uninterrupted black basal band on tergite 2 of A. obsoleta.

In contrast, the scutellum is black in "good" A. obsoleta and the legs are a more saturated "honey yellow", while in "good" A. convexa the 2nd tergite has an isolated antero-medial black triangle well-separated from small antero-lateral black patches.

See my recent post below for (too?:-) much more detail on all this:

… Aaron Schusteff, 26 July, 2014 - 11:38am login or register to post comments

 
I agree with your analysis...
it definitely falls within this group. I lean towards A. obsoleta based on the dorsal and ventral abdominal patterns, and faint wing venation. I wish I could read the original description, but my German is lousy. The yellow scutellum is the main thing dragging it back towards A. convexa, and I'm not sure just how important that is. Remember that most of these were described from small series, and the description may not be representative of the entire distribution. The original descriptions were based on western specimens and this one comes from the east coast.
… Dennis Haines, 29 July, 2014 - 3:19pm login or register to post comments

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