Archivo: Stylogaster macalpini (12947561584, cropped) (cropped)

Description: A fly with a long tapered ovipositor and dark stripes on its abdomen. Stylogaster macalpini, family Conopidae on a Stylidium flower. Hanging Mountain, Deua National Park, NSW, Australia, February 2014.

Thanks to David McAlpine, after whom the fly is named, and Shane McEvey, for help with identification.

According ot Margaret Schneider, A taxonomic revision of Australian Conopidae (Insecta: Diptera), Zootaxa 2581: 1–246 (31 Aug. 2010): There are three species of Stylogaster found in Australia. Stylogaster liepae is found on Lord Howe Island; Stylogaster frauci has no dark bands on the abdomen and is found in eastern Queensland; Stylogaster macalpini has black bands across the posterior margins of the abdomen, and is found in eastern Australian mainland and Tasmania.

The original descriptions are found in: Smith, KGV (1979) . The Genus Stylogaster (Diptera: Conopidae: Stylogasterinae) in the Australian Region. Australian Journal of Zoology 27, 303–310.
Author: John Tann from Sydney, Australia
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