CLOSED: Siphona geniculata (?), Family Tachinidae (Anthomyiidae?)

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

This looks close to Siphona geniculata, but mine has dark banks across the abdomen with blotches between. All the pics I have found don't have those. They are very distinctive if anyone knows this genus!

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Flies/SpFlies/Siphona.geniculata.html

http://tachinidae.org.uk/site/get-species.php?brcno=15305

http://www.gardensafari.net/pics/vliegen/overig/siphona_geniculata_ha2_3223.jpg

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

http://www.pbase.com/richard2051/image/70126979

Their food source Hieracium I had a 'lawn' full of until it was mowed yesterday.

A google image search for Siphona only brings up nothing.

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/image?query=Siphona%20&invocationType=imageTab

The Tachinidae site has 11 species of Siphona listed.

http://www.tachinidae.org.uk/site/get-list.php?search=*&target=name

S. boreata, collini, confusa, cristata, geniculata, hokkaidensis, ingerae, maculata, pauciseta, setosa, variata.

Under the previous name of Siphona cristata it still has a plain abdomen.

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P5/P59464.php

I thought Siphona maculata sounded promising as it has blotches, not a picture anywhere.


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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

#2

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

#3

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

#4

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kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Jun 30, 2007

Janet,
I think you may be over-emphasising the stripes on the abdomen. I don't think these are really stripes, but the gaps between the abdomen segments. Yours has a very swollen abdomen (perhaps a pregnant fly), so the segments are stretched apart more than usual.
Having said that, Siphona geniculata becomes a definite possibility,

Ken

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

I think you're right Ken, and I have more images without stripes so I wonder if there is a male/female difference. I've got so many images of flies (other bugs too!) they get lost until I go through them again. That's on top of taking them all and sorting etc.!!!!

Could this be the male, the eyes look close together. Taken on 17th June.

I have another of a female a little slimmer on the same date, 17th June.

My above pics were taken on 28th June, 12 days later!

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

A female on 17th June

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2007

(Maybe 11 days later) Long enough for a pregnant fly!

Eyes wide apart, the female. And yes you are right, I spend every available moment when the sun shines or it's not raining out taking pics! I must have the best line up of Siphona geniculata pics on the web!

I will add it as that if you agree, I guess in the Tachinidae Family? The unimaas.nl site places it in Anthomyiidae.

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 01, 2007

I got a pic of a female today behind my neighbour's shed. There's something pink under it's abdomen, do they carry their young there?

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