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Quichuana sp.
A super interesting Flower Fly, all shiny black with an aura of golden hair all around it's body. About 1 cm long with partially darkened wings. It has two pale lines down the thorax. Family Syrphidae. These flies breed in tiny pools of water in epiphytes and Heliconia in tropical areas of central and south america.
Came to an ultraviolet light. Finca Argovia, Ruta de Cafe, Soconusco area of southern Chiapas, Mexico. About 1 hour from Tapachula.
The fly pictured on this page was reared from Heliconia: http://www.umis.ac.uk/conferences/confer... An old classic 1946 article on the genus Quichuana, many more species have been described since: http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream...
Spotted on Nov 20, 2015
Submitted on Mar 20, 2016
1 Comment
A big thank you to Doug Yanega and Martin Hauser for the identification of this fly. So fascinating that it breeds in epiphytes!