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I caught a Myopa species at the weekend. I have provisionally keyed it as M strandi, but the colour of the pleurae is dark, rather than reddish-yellow. The fly does have rows of adpressed bristles on the ventral-postero part of the four front tibia. Can anyone advise, is this feature unique to Myopa strandi, or might other Myopa species share the adpressed bristles feature?

There are some photographs at: www.insectpix.net...

Best wishes to all
Nigel Jones

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Hi.

The colour of all Myopa is variable and the color of pleura doubly so. The difference between the pale and dark states of pleura is not easy to judge without large reference series of both 'pale' and 'dark' species. IIRC the name M. testacea has been found to be a senior synonym of Myopa strandi, leaving the species previously called M. testacea without any name. As an additional complication Myopa curtirostris - known from Denmark (only?) - was lifted from synonymy back to full species status. As a result of all this there are very few persons who can reliably identify Myopas :|

The ventral rows of setulae are found in all north/central European species with the exception of Myopa vicaria.

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Hi Kahis,
Many thanks for the explanation of the current state of affairs with Myopa classification. Sounds pretty difficult to resolve. Looks like I will have to send the specimen to an expert. I'll try the UK Conopid Recording Scheme.

Cheers
Nigel:o