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Project Noah Nature School
Physocephala tibialis
about 1 inch; bluish black with light blue/white edge along back side of thin wings; was alive but not flying; there was white scaly material at center of the tread waist that made me wonder if it was molting; there were two little yellow dots moving on either side of the thorax; wide paddle-like antenae; giant compound eyes
urban school campus, sunning and not moving on a picnic table
thought is was wasp at first but turned out to be fly; there was some debate about this specimen by entomologist on Bugguide.net maybe because it was newly emerged from pupa, surprised to find out the yellow dots were "halteres" or vestigial hind wings; the id is best guess
Spotted on Apr 10, 2018
Submitted on Jun 27, 2018
3 Comments
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated Charlotte!
Charlotte, this is a great spotting with good notes. But, it would be better without the (maybe ?) in the scientific name. Your notes appropriately indicate that this is a tentative ID and this should suffice. I hope you don't mind my suggesting that you remove it. Thanks.
Nice find Charlotte. An interesting one for sure. Head/face/antennae don't seem to match most images of that species but I can't find anything better. Hope you sort it out.