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| Platycheirus hesperius | |
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| female head | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Syrphidae |
| Subfamily: | Syrphinae |
| Tribe: | Bacchini |
| Genus: | Platycheirus |
| Species: | P. hesperius |
| Binomial name | |
| Platycheirus hesperius (Vockeroth, 1986 ) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Platycheirus hesperius, the southern punctate sedgesitter, is a fly in the Syrphidae family. It is a rare species found in the USA from Washington south to southern California. Adult Syrphids are also known as flower flies for they are commonly found on flowers, from which they get nectar and pollen. They are also called hoverflies for the ability to often remain nearly motionless in flight.
Description
For terminology see Speight key to genera and glossary or Glossary of morphological terminology
P. hesperius male front leg
P. hesperius male head
P. hesperius female body
- Size
- 5.7–7.9 mm (0.22–0.31 in)
- Head
- The face has a narrow black shining median stripe along the tubercle featuring small punctures arranged in oblique rows covered with a greyish pollinosity (dusting). (figure 2)
- Legs
- The legs have dark femora, and all the tibiae and tarsi are yellow (figure3). The fore and mid-tarsomeres are brown above and orange ventrally. The fore-tibia has a row of 5-7 strong posterior setae on the apical three-quarters, with the longest setae approximately three times the tibial diameter. (figure 1) The mid tibia has a similar row of weaker setae on the apical two-thirds, while the legs are otherwise unmodified.
- Abdomen
- The abdomen has large spots of brown or grey on the tergites, overlaid with strong silver dusting, which can be almost touching in the center on tergites 3 and 4. (see figure 3).
- General Anatomy, click to enlarge
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Legs
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Head
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Wing
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Body
References
- ^ Vockeroth, J. R. (1990). "Revision of the Nearctic species of Platycheirus (Diptera, Syrphidae)". Canadian Entomologist. 122 (4): 659–766. doi:10.4039/Ent122659-7.
- "Southern Punctate Sedgesitter(Platycheirus hesperius)". inaturalist. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
- Vockeroth, J. R. (1992). The Flower Flies of the Subfamily Syrphinae of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland (Diptera: Syrphidae). Part 18. The Insects and Arachnids of Canada (PDF). Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Government Pub Centre. pp. 1–456.
- Young, Andrew D.; Marshall, Stephen A.; Skevington, Jeffrey H. (17 February 2016). "Revision of Platycheirus Lepeletier and Serville (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Nearctic north of Mexico". Zootaxa. 4082 (1): 34. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4082.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Platycheirus hesperius | |