Heleomyzidae - 70 Species, Identification & Facts

Acantholeria armipes

Identification: Males with a bump-like swelling on the hind tibia and 7-12 femoral spines with hooked tips.

Acantholeria moscowa

Identification: Male with a slight ventral swelling on hind tibia and 12-20 stout spines on posteroventral surface of hind femur. Dorsocentral bristles arising from distinct brown spots.

Amoebaleria flavotestacea

Identification: body yellow; 2 strong bristles on katepisternum

Amoebaleria helvola

Identification: Common. Differs from the other yellow Amoebaleria in the east ( A. flavotestacea ) by its larger size and the presence of only one strong bristle on the katepisternum.

Cinderella lampra

Identification: This species can be identified by the combination of incomplete subcosta, subcostal and humeral breaks, cell cup present, shiny black color, and tubercle on face. Also: row of reclinate fronto-orbital bristles increasing in size towa

Eccoptomera aldrichi

Identification: Scutellum bare, except for usual 2 pairs of lateral bristles; cheek-eye ratio 0.73‒0.85

Gymnomus caesius

Detailed examination is necessary to identify to species level. No additional images available for this species.

Heleomyza serrata

Identification: The combination of the katepisternum with only 1 or 2 strong bristles, the mesopleuron bare except for a patch of hairs near the propleuron, and unmarked wings is diagnostic for this species.

Heteromyza oculata

Identification: Distinction from some European species of Heteromyza is discussed on diptera.info: http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=5&thread_id=64196 .

Heteromyza rotundicornis

5mm. Grey thorax and scutellum with an orange abdomen. Costal spines on the wings. The face is slightly narrower than the frons. Heteromyza commixta is very similar but has a face as wide as the frons. Unless identified by a recognised expert, photog

Lutomyia spurca

Identification: reddish; no anterodorsal bristles on mesotibia, R2+3 touching costa over most of its length, and several ventral spines on male metafemur

Neoleria fuscolinea

Identification: Mesonotum with two narrow vittae between the dorsocentral rows, which are strongest at the anterior margin. Proepisternum with two bristles.

Orbellia barbata

Identification: Legs mostly and palpi entirely yellow; male with yellow beard; male fore basitarsus not longer than second tarsomere.

Pseudoleria pectinata

Identification: While most Pseudoleria females are difficult or impossible to identify, females of P. pectinata (but not males) have a distinctive dense patch of short bristles on each side of the 3rd abdominal segment. Males are most reliably identi

Schroederella luteoala

Identification: Reddish brown species with smoky wings and two katepisternal bristles.

Scoliocentra latens

Identification: Body dark grey or brown. Two pairs of strong vibrissae and 2+ katepisternal bristles. Hind basitarsus of male shorter than 2nd tarsomere.

Scoliocentra villosa

Length: Male 7 to 9 mm, Female 6.5 to 8 mm. Scoliocentra villosa is a fly with orange abdomen and legs. Various habitats including meadows, deciduous woodland and also found in caves. Can be seen at most times of year but mainly between March and Jul

Suillia apicalis

Identification: The only North American species of Suillia with hairs on the mesopleuron (=anepisternum) and with the dorsal hairs of the scutellum restricted to the lateral edges. Also distinguished from the similar-looking S. plumata by the short p

Suillia barberi

Identification: " Gill (1962) comments: profemora darkened, almost black; wings strongly infuscated along crossveins and ends of longitudinal veins and along costal margin; abdomen reddish orange to reddish brown. Aldrich (1908) description: a brown

Suillia bicolor

Approximately 5 mm in length. This has an orange-brown thorax and darker brown abdomen. It has clear wings that have costal spines along the leading edge (these spines are characterisitic of the family). Unless identified by a recognised expert, a ph

Suillia convergens

Identification: "The absence of wing infuscations and of scutellar hairs or setae usually distinguishes this species from others in the genus." (Gill, 1962)

Suillia laevis

Identification: Strong humeral bristles, pale antennae.

Suillia longipennis

Identification: Male with long hairs on legs. Both sexes with small eye, scutellum nearly covered with small hairs, and anepisternum bare or nearly bare.

Suillia quinquepunctata

Identification: Wing with five spots, scutellum with hairs over most of dorsal surface, anepisternum bare, gena narrow. Other eastern species can be distinguished: Nemorum has hairs on the anepisternum and ranges only overlap narrowly in the north.

Suillia sororcula

Identification: Scutellum nearly bare; wings with distinct infuscations at the ends of crossveins and along costal margin; cheek narrow.

Tephrochlamys rufiventris

Detailed examination is necessary to identify to species level.

Tephrochlamys tarsalis

This small/medium fly is a winter specialist, appearing in December and January. It has a grey thorax and an orange abdomen. See the ID checklist below for a detailed list of the key ID features. Tephrochlamys flavipes is the species most similar but

Trixoscelis albibasis

Identification: "This species can be readily distinguished from T. ornata and T. punctipennis by the light gray band from the fourth pair of dorsocentral setae to the second tergite of the abdomen." (Foster and Mathis 2012)

Trixoscelis buccata

Identification: Entire body light brown, wing with costal margin and crossveins infuscated, gena (cheek) tall, 40%-55% the height of the eye.

Trixoscelis deserta

Identification: Distinguished from other Trixoscelis by the combination of wing distinctly darker along front margin, thorax with stripes, eye large (about 4/5 as tall as head), and vein M dark between the crossveins.

Trixoscelis flava

Identification: All setae yellow, two rows of acrostichal setulae. Gena very high (gena-eye ratio 0.65-0.85), ocellar triangle yellow, antennae yellow in male and black in female. Abdomen either light gray or yellow.

Trixoscelis flavicornis

Identification: All setae yellow, two rows of acrostichal setulae. Gena moderately high (gena-eye ratio 0.33-0.45), entire body yellow.

Trixoscelis melanderi

Identification: Tall gena (cheek), about 53% of the height of the eye. Abdomen yellow, contrasting with the gray thorax.

Trixoscelis ornata

Identification: "This species exhibits a rather spotted thorax and abdomen and differs from T. polita in having the abdomen gray to brown microtomentose, while T. polita shows a shiny, dark brown abdomen."

Trixoscelis polita

Identification: "This species is easily distinguished from the closely related T. ornata by the shiny, dark brown abdomen and the rather uniformly gray thorax." (Foster and Mathis 2012)

Trixoscelis signifera

Identification: Two indistinct stripes on top of thorax, stripe along top of side of thorax, antenna yellow, wing brownish along costal margin, vein M dark between crossveins, gena (cheek) very narrow.