CLOSED: New Fly Family, Chloropidae.

Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

I think my fly is a Yellow Swarming Fly, Thaumatomyia notata . It is very small, struggling to be even 1/8" in length I would say.

This gives a tentative ID on the next link, as Chlorops pumilionis have similar markings on head and thorax. The pic on this site however doesn't quite match mine, the pattern between the eyes is much larger, and the abdomen, although difficult to see, looks darker.

http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/insects/acalyptratae.htm

There is a pic on the next link under Grass Flies which states Chlorops sp.?, this looks similar to mine, but enlarged I can see the abdomen looks darker.

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/remaining_flies.htm#scatophaga_stercoraria

The next link give some info on Thaumatomyia notata and it's range, there it's called a Carnivorous Fly.

http://www.zin.ru/annrep/2000/16.html

This calls it a Predatory Fly, with no other information.

http://www.maik.ru/abstract/enteng/0/enteng0911_abstract.pdf

Another image

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Flies/SpFlies/Thaumatomyia.notata.html

The diptera.info link has pics of the male and female of Thaumatomyia notata, if anything mine resembles the male but without seeing the marks on the back of the abdomen I couldn't be certain. The other marks do look to be very similar.

http://www.diptera.info/photogallery.php?album_id=10

My pics are perhaps not very large, but then the bug is tiny and without a lens/extra MPs to cope with it, impossible to get a larger image.

I can see on the back of my bug two dark stripes, with two dark spots near the tail end.

I thought if we couldn't pin it down to a particular species, perhaps just the Genus with 'sp.' would give a place for this, as well as a new Family for BF.






Thumbnail by wallaby1
Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

#2

Thumbnail by wallaby1
Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

#3

Thumbnail by wallaby1
Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

This gives an idea of it's size.

#4

Thumbnail by wallaby1
Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

#5

The last pic cropped closer. I can see a black mark either side of the abdomen nearest the thorax, above the two black stripes, or marks.

Thumbnail by wallaby1
Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a)

Janet, I agree that it looks like the Yellow Swarming Fly (Thaumatomyia notata).
Here are some pictures that match yours very closely: http://www.tolweb.org/Carnoidea
http://www.pbase.com/holopain/image/66398194

Since it is a new family for BugFiles, I had to create the new entry, so we now have an entry for Thaumatomyia notata here: http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/4704/
and I have added the family to the index.
When you have added your images to the species, I will select an image to illustrate the family,

Ken

Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a)

Gee that was easy wasn't it!

Thanks Ken, will close this and add my pics, save me searching for all the rest!

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