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Observer

netoguz8

Date

January 19, 2021 04:59 PM -03

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Observer

arbonius

Date

February 4, 2020 12:12 PM PST

Description

"The most beautiful crab spider in California" according to Robert Z. Schick, author of 1965 "The Crab Spiders of California".

At the time of writing in 1965, this was called Diaea pictilis...a species described in 1896 and considered native to coastal California from Sonoma & Napa counties south to San Diego and into northern Baja California.

Only later was it synonymized with D. livens...a species of central & southern Europe and reaching east to Iran. Presuming that synonymy is sound, it suggests this may be an introduced species in CA.

For more details on the ID here (with lots of supporting links & references) see this companion BugGuide post.

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Observer

robertobattaglia

Date

September 18, 2017 02:51 PM -03

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Observer

william6

Date

March 24, 2019 10:35 AM GMT

Description

Had this down as a Conopid until someone pointed out that it was Ceriana. As far as I can tell, Physocephala exists mostly for me to mistake unrelated flies for it (Bombyliidae and Syrphidae down - I'm sure there's a Tachinid and an Asilid out there somewhere waiting for me to file them away as Physocephala, too...) but at least in this case, I do vaguely recall being perplexed at how much it refused to be forced through any key I could find to Physocephala, which in hindsight should have given me a clue.

Anyway, per F.C. Thompson's key to the Afrotropical genera of Cerioidini, This petiolate specimen should belong to Monoceromyia, which he treats as a genus but seems to flicker between genus and subgenus elsewhere.

In Curran's key (American Museum Novitates 1009) it goes quite comfortably to "Cerioides gambiana" (=Ceriana (Sphiximorpha) gambiana pictured on the Natural history museum site); I have very little accessible information on this species beyond it presumably being originally recorded in West Africa, and some details of colouration that are NOT used in Curran's key do not tally between the NHM specimen (here: https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/56e711e6-c847-4f99-915a-6894bb5c5dea/resource/05ff2255-c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb?view_id=6ba121d1-da26-4ee1-81fa-7da11e68f68e&filters=preservative%3Adry+%28pinned%29%7CtypeStatus%3Aholotype%7Cgenus%3Aceriana, near the bottom)

Curran's key is not complete, so it is possible that this (like the other Monoceromyia from the same spot which sort of drops off half way through the key) are not in it, and I will eventually get around to digging up as many of the others as I can, but for now TENTATIVELY C gambiana.

NB - Thompson notes that the antennifer in Sphiximorpha, to which the NHM have assigned their C. gambiana, is broader at the base than it is long, and less than half the length of the scape. This is not the case in my fly or in the NHM specimen, so...

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Observer

k_jiaranaisakul

Date

February 25, 2018 01:09 PM +07

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Observer

i_c_riddell

Date

February 18, 2016 02:26 PM CAT

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What

Phantom Hoverfly (Doros profuges)

Observer

rovzap

Date

June 19, 2020 01:08 PM MSK

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chapeng

Date

June 18, 2018 08:11 AM AWST

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Observer

ygurjar

Date

June 15, 2003 10:31 AM IST

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artmur

Date

September 28, 2017 12:58 PM CDT

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What

Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno)

Observer

rpabad

Place

Costa Rica (Google, OSM)

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Observer

taewoo

Date

July 31, 2009 08:10 AM KST

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What

Yellowshield Wasp Fly (Polybiomyia townsendi)

Observer

arturoc

Date

May 7, 2016

Description

Solitaria, cerca del agua

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Observer

wklegend

Date

March 12, 2018 12:26 PM AWST

Description

mimic wasps

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Observer

wklegend

Date

April 4, 2018 12:19 PM HKT

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Observer

djhiker

Date

February 2, 2016 02:03 PM CET

Tags

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Observer

pam-piombino

Date

March 1, 2017 11:42 PM MST

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Observer

cats_and_corgi

Date

October 7, 2017 01:10 PM +08

Place

Singapore (Google, OSM)

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Observer

whaichi

Date

May 23, 2018 11:56 AM KST

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Observer

francisco3_

Date

October 19, 2018 12:00 PM HST

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Observer

wayne_fidler

Date

February 24, 2018 10:36 AM EST