Champlain Laphria

According to Walton's original 1910 description (at BHL, here , figures of plate IX here ), champlainii has dense yellow pile on the first through the fourth abdominal tergites (fifth on male), with 'anvil-shaped' black patches on the dorsum of first three, while grossa has first tergite black, separated from subsequent tergites by a deep groove, and lacking the dorsal black patches. The proboscis of champlainii is thinner and more tapered than grossa , which has a proboscis that is thicker towards the distal end. These two male specimens from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History collection fit the original description: This female specimen also fits Walton's original description: The following individuals were posted as champlainii on BugGuide, but they differ substantially from Walton's description in abdominal pattern and other features, like the color of the hair on the mesopleuron (should be primarily dark on champlainii , while it seems to be entirely yellow on these problematic ones). The shelf of the basistylus on on individual has a sharp lateral angle, while this area is more rounded on champlainii . I am fairly certain these flies are something other than champlainii , probably grossa . (BC) *Please note that champlainii was erroneously identified as huron on Steve Bullington's Laphriini Pages website until recently due to a specimen labeling error. The species account has now been corrected (Feb. 2015), though the key and other references on the site are still in error. Some earlier references by Herschel Raney on BugGuide to huron reflect this error, and referred to individuals now acknowledged to be champlainii . Please keep this in mind when reading older BugGuide comments referencing huron . True huron resembles sacrator with a black abdomen.