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Confusing Sedgesitter
Platycheirus confusus
Platycheirus confusus, the confusing sedgesitter, is a common species of syrphid fly in the family Syrphidae. It has been found to have and eastern and western North American population. Larvae have been successfully reared on a diet of
Adelges piceae.
From the article Platycheirus confusus on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
For terminology Speight key to genera and glossary external link to photos Size 6–8.2 mm (0.24–0.32 in)
The face slopes downward slightly, and the front of the oral margin does not extend as far forward as the tubercle. A broad, shiny stripe runs down the center of the face from the lower facial margin almost to the antennae. The greyish pollinosity on the sides of the stripe appears to have faint oblique ripples. The legs are mostly dark, with only the tips of the femora and the basal three-quarters of the fore and mid tibiae being orange. On the upper two-thirds of the fore tibia, there is a row of weak, posterior setae, with the longest setae being approximately three times the diameter of the tibia. The mid tibia also has a similar row of setae on its upper two-thirds. The thorax has very sparse grey pollinosity, almost appearing bare. The longest scutellar pile is as long as the arista, while other thoracic piles are no longer than half the length of the scutellar pile. The upper half of the pleura usually has dark pile, while the lower half of the pleura has white pile. The halter is brown. The wing is typically brownish and almost entirely microtrichose, with only small bare patches near cells c and bm. …
Wikipedia: “Description MALE”
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Every page naming Platycheirus confusus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 1083341.