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Possible Miltogramma germani ?

Submitted by Sylvie_h on

Good afternoon All,

I am a new member and I am looking forward to learning more about flies. My main interest lies in Hoverflies and Soldierflies and allies but I am getting more interested in other groups of flies. 

I have found this satellite fly which I think is Miltogramma germani (from Steven Falk's flickr account) but I am not sure. The fly was looking over a nest of Megachile leachella. I did not see it entering the nest but it was flying over and kept coming back to the same perch which was overlooking the nest. I assumed there was an association. I would be grateful if somebody could help me with confirming the identification. Thank you

Sylvie 

Miltogramma species (possibly germani)
Miltogramma species (possibly germani)

Comments

This looks OK for Miltogramma germari.  (Note the spelling - Meigen named the species after his chum Ernst Germar.) Megachile species are recorded as hosts for this species. Do pop the record on iRecord, or submit it directly to the Sarcophagid recording scheme - that way we'll find out if we have the identification correct!

It was identified as Pterella grisea (with a query) on iRecord. When asked, I confirmed that there were also nests of Cerceris arenaria around the nest of Megachile. This is something to investigate again next year. 

Hi All, Fell upon this as I was revamping my Flickr site and tidying up the Sarcophagidae section https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/collections/72157717896352376/ and I'm pretty sure it is not germanica because I can just make out dark spots on the tergites. I think it might be M. punctatum but Pterella can look so similar and you can't check for vibrissae in these views. But scrutinise my new folders and see if you can use the body markings to decide which it might be (that's the reason I include so many photos). I've had germari areound leachella nests in Sussex but you can get so many aculeates using a common patch of ground it can be really confusing.