Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Empidid fly

Empis tessellata

Description:

Empididae is a family of flies with over 3,000 described worldwide. While mainly predatory they can often be seen visiting flowers to obtain nectar, as shown here. The flower is the Great masterwort, Astrantia major. Common names for members of this family include dagger flies (see the sharp piercing mouthpart on this species). See notes for identification.

Habitat:

Sub-alpine forest clearing, alt. 1500m ASL.

Notes:

Empis tessellata has black femurs and reddish tibias and tarsi, whereas Empis opaca has brownish red femurs (see reference).

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

7 Comments

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 9 years ago

Thanks Mark and James! I'm updating the ID to species level.

James McNair
James McNair 9 years ago

Incredible macros...great job, awesome spotting

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Lovely shots... yes looks like E tessellata ♀ to me. Seems many are mis-IDed with E opaca on leg colour.

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 9 years ago

Thanks Bill! Doesn't it look like it's assembled with rivets?!

beaker98
beaker98 9 years ago

Super sharp! Love to see all the details. Nice series Daniele!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 9 years ago

Thank you Satyen!

Wild Things
Wild Things 9 years ago

Nice one Daniele!

DanielePralong
Spotted by
DanielePralong

Champéry, Wallis, Switzerland

Spotted on Jun 26, 2014
Submitted on Aug 17, 2014

Related Spottings

Dance fly Dancing Fly Dance Fly Dance Fly

Nearby Spottings

Silver-washed Fritillary Red admiral Scotch Argus Criquet jacasseur/Gebirgsgrashüpfer
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team