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Date of sighting: 05.March 2025
Location: Private garden with mixed biome (mostly dry but with artificial water biome) in the east part of Lower Austria.
Size: Appr.5-6mm
I am somehow confident that this is a Gonia sp. Usually I do not go further than that because Gonia are too difficult to define to exact species for me.
But I have read that because of the early time of sighting with still lower temperatures one could definitely say that this can only be Gonia picea.
Can anyone verify or refute this statement?
I would like to be able to submit a correct declaration.
I already went to a german diptera forum with this question and was redirected to ask here.
TX in advance for an answer!
Una

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Foto 2 Front view

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Foto 3 - Please excuse the bad quality – it was the only one I was able take from the side.

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At a first glance I'd say Gonia picea is correct (the early date supports that) - but I don't have broad experience with Gonia.

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Thank you for your helpful answer Eric!
It supports the statement I found that Gonia picea it is a very early species.

I have several documentations of Gonia spec in my garden every year, although in the past this was always in late summer and never that early.
Thus they are not extremely rare at least in my region.
But it seems to be very difficult to find an expert who can help me to learn more about them and how to correctly identify at least one or the other.
I just started to get interested in diptera 2 years ago and I am still working my way through all the descriptions and learning about anatomical features and vocabulary.

Greetings from Una Own

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Hi Una, I'm sure you will find a lot of help and useful information at diptera.info and in the web!

For instance, very useful is the key for Tachinidae Tschorsnig, Herting (1994): "Die Raupenfliegen (Diptera: Tachinidae) Mitteleuropas". It can be downloaded here: https://biostor.o...ence/97167
Or the English translation: The Tachinids (Diptera: Tachinidae) of Central Europe from https://tachinida...igures.pdf

Both versions include lots of figures as well as distribution and dates to assist you in giving a genus or a species a name.

You may find that it's important to have sharp images of all sides of the fly to count bristles etc.

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Yes, picea it is. The frontal viee is essential, thanks. Recognition is pretty advanced ....


Theo

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Thank you all for your help!

And a very special TX (großes Dankeschön) to Eric for the links!
These papers are very difficult to understand for a beginner like me, but I will give my best and try.
Greetings Una