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Dear forum,

anybody who can help me with an ID for this Mediterrannean robber fly? Is it a Laphria species?

Location: Greece, Volos, Pilion Peninsula, Kala Nera (altitude 350 m)

Habitat. tree trunk, olive groves on hills

Date: 12th September 2005

Thank you and kind regards
Dirk

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It belongs to the Asilinae, lateral picture is welcome

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You can quickly rule out Laphria by the antennae. Asilidae with cell r1 closed and a long arista are Asilinae. Asilidae with cell r1 closed and blunt-tipped antennae are Laphriinae. There are a few exceptions and disagreements about classification, but at least in North America this rule works for the common species.

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Thank you for your help. I took some pictures of further views. Here is the lateral one...

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frontal view...

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...and a semi-lateral view.

Maybe anyone of you can ID this robber fly with the help of these pictures.

Thank you for your continued help and kind regards
Dirk

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It is going to hard......if not impossible........ Could you measure the creature and provide us with a good picture of the ovipositor? Maybe with a bit more light : )

(It seems to be a Machimus female ,and they can't be Id-ed without a male(most of the times) this one is also an oily specimen)

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Reinould,

Thank you very much for your efforts to provide an ID of this asilid fly to me. I realize that the identification might be very difficult for this one.

I added a picture of the ovipositor. At the moment I do not have any better optics for such high precision shots (sorry), but I tried my best.

The measurement of the specimen: total length: 16 mm; wing length 11 mm; head wide: 3.5 mm.

This is the only specimen I could find in this area, there I do not have any males.

Again, thanks a lot and best regards
Dirk

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Hi Dirk,

Thank you for the effort, i can not id the specimen but it seems to be a Machimus species by the looks of the ovipositor.

And you're welcome : )

Greetings,

Reinoud

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Thank you for the genus ID!