Black Lauxaniid Fly
S5, Setae & Leg Colour
Red-eyed Lauxaniid Fly
S2, dorsal
Animals
Plants
Info
| Black Lauxaniid Fly S5, Setae & Leg Colour | | Red-eyed Lauxaniid Fly S2, dorsal | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Flies (Diptera) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Lauxaniid Fly (Lauxaniidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Red-eyed Lauxaniid Fly (Ceratolauxania sp ES02)| This Photo: | S1, dorsal & Wing venation | Thank you Tony Daley for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere 1st Record in SA on Atlas & iNaturalist: ~4.5->5mm long. We mentioned to Tony that we thought we had 3 species due to distinct colour variations. A lighter brown, as here, a nearly black one (with a forward black wing band) and most specimens were just a darker thorax. Leg colour often seems to be a diagnostic with flies, as well as the shading behind the ocelli, and the thorax colour. Tony replied "Agree you seem to have a few species at least, as you say, based on colour differences of certain areas that typically means such. On the black areas near antennae, I think they are just anterior areas of the frons, either swelling or seemingly so by the frons being depressed between (latter is how Malloch described the area for similar looking Ceratolauxania - don't have specimens to check myself)." The Similarities between the 3 species we think we've found: Orange head Painted moustache Black shading behind the ocelli & antennal mounts. Black front tarsi Black front femurs Differences: Brown (here) -> black (grey?) pronotum Brown (here) -> black rear femurs The shading behind the ocelli can be small (here) to quite large. Size (of those we've caught & measured at Ellura) the brown ones are slightly larger at ~4.5->5mm. The black ones being consistently ~4mm. One of the black ones (ES03) has black shading to the front of the wings as well!
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