Tibial Hairiness. Phania funesta, Tiny Black Fly, on Dove's Foot Cranesbill, Geranium molle, Zeeburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Not entirely sure... whether this Tiny Black Fly - perhaps 6-7 mm - is 'vespertina' or 'umbratica' or even whether 'Hebecnema' at all. Anyway, it's now been identified as Phania funesta by Stephane Lebrun; see below: many thanks!
But it was fun anyway to find out more about that curious generic name 'Hebecnema' which I first thought it was. It was coined by Johann Andreas Schnabl (1838-1912), apparently for a talk to the Russian Entomological Society and published in 1889 in the Horae Societatis Entomologiae Rossicae 23, 331. The section on Hebecnema is headed by two Greek words: Ἥβη and κνήμη (= Hebe and cnema), signifying in Latin "pubes" and "tibia"; hence the "Tibial Hairiness" of my title above. In the long description which follows, Schnabl remarks on our Fly's 'villosité des tibias', in reference, I think to the longish tibial hairs which you can just make out in this photo. Unless, of course, I'm mistaken that this is Hebecnema at all...
Here it is on Geranium molle, Dove's Foot Cranesbill on a chilly late afternoon in Zeeburg, Amsterdam. And just admire its wonderful pollen!
Tibial Hairiness. Phania funesta, Tiny Black Fly, on Dove's Foot Cranesbill, Geranium molle, Zeeburg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Not entirely sure... whether this Tiny Black Fly - perhaps 6-7 mm - is 'vespertina' or 'umbratica' or even whether 'Hebecnema' at all. Anyway, it's now been identified as Phania funesta by Stephane Lebrun; see below: many thanks!
But it was fun anyway to find out more about that curious generic name 'Hebecnema' which I first thought it was. It was coined by Johann Andreas Schnabl (1838-1912), apparently for a talk to the Russian Entomological Society and published in 1889 in the Horae Societatis Entomologiae Rossicae 23, 331. The section on Hebecnema is headed by two Greek words: Ἥβη and κνήμη (= Hebe and cnema), signifying in Latin "pubes" and "tibia"; hence the "Tibial Hairiness" of my title above. In the long description which follows, Schnabl remarks on our Fly's 'villosité des tibias', in reference, I think to the longish tibial hairs which you can just make out in this photo. Unless, of course, I'm mistaken that this is Hebecnema at all...
Here it is on Geranium molle, Dove's Foot Cranesbill on a chilly late afternoon in Zeeburg, Amsterdam. And just admire its wonderful pollen!