Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Syrphid Fly Wasp mimic?, 0 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
There was two of these yesterday together, one kept coming back but I'm not sure if I got pics of both or just the one.

It's very small and proved difficult to get good pics, it didn't stay for too long. I would say it was around 10-12mm long, the tail section well curved downwards.

The abdomen looked well 'bumped' with lots of broad stripes. The antennae are longer than normal syrphid flies, and low down on the face, mimicking wasp antennae I think. Again this was on white flowers, Clematis flammula, which seems to attract many insects.

I found a wasp mimic syrphid fly which has black front legs used to mimick wasp antennae, which isn't the case with mine.

http://ethology.sggw.pl/documentation.php?id=13

I found one with a similar shape without the strong stripes, Physocephala supposedly.

http://www.robsplants.com/critters/flies.php

I found another pic of Physocephala and the face is a match! Legs and feet look the same too.

http://www.eco.ethz.ch/research/coevolution

Conops quadrifasciatus looks good except for the colour of the legs,

http://www.insektengalerie.de/zweifluegler/conops_quadrifasc...

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Flies/...

Hmm, no black on these legs either, and it doesn't look to have yellow feet! (tee hee)

http://www.fkohl.de/wallpapers/conops_quadrifasciatus_wp.jpg

Another with legs reddish brown, not black and yellow.

http://www.rps.org/portfolios_detail.php?ID=482

Time to post before I lose it.