Blera (fly) explained

Blera is primarily a North American genus, though there are 3 species from Europe.^[1] The genus is characterized by the following characters:

• face with distinct central knob, less developed in females; frons distinctly produced
• antennae shorter than head width, arista dorsal
• body covered long sometimes dense hairs
• legs simple bare and undeveloped metasternite
• short apical section of vein R 4+5

The larvae are found in decaying heartwood in roots of trees and stumps.

There are keys to American^[2] and British species.^[3] external map

Species

• Blera ambigua (Shiraki, 1968)^[4]
• Blera analis (Macquart, 1842)^[5]
• Blera armillata (Osten Sacken, 1875)^[6]
• Blera badia (Walker, 1849)^[7]
• Blera chillcotti Thompson, 2012^[8]
• Blera confusa Johnson, 1913^[9]
• Blera eoa (Stackelberg, 1928)^{[10] [1] [11]}
• Blera equimacula Huo, Ren & Zheng, 2007^[12]
• Blera fallax (Linnaeus, 1758)^{[3] [1]}
• Blera ferdinandi (Hervé-Bazin, 1914)^[13]
• Blera flukei (Curran, 1953)^[2]
• Blera garretti (Curran, 1924)^[14]
• Blera himalaya Thompson, 2000^[15]
• Blera humeralis (Williston, 1882)^[16]
• Blera japonica (Shiraki, 1930)^[17]
• Blera johnsoni (Coquillett, 1894)^[18]
• Blera kyotoensis (Shiraki, 1952)^[19]
• Blera lonigseta Barkalov & Cheng, 2011^[20]
• Blera metcalfi (Curran, 1925)^[21]
• Blera nigra (Williston, 1887)
• Blera nigrescens Shiraki, 1968^[4]
• Blera nigripes (Curran, 1925)^[21]
• Blera nitens (Stackelberg, 1923)^[22]
• Blera notata (Wiedemann, 1830)^[23]
• Blera ochrozona (Stackelberg, 1928)^[10]
• Blera pictipes (Bigot, 1884)^[24]
• Blera robusta (Curran, 1922)^[25]
• Blera scitula (Williston, 1887)
• Blera shirakii Barkalov & Mutin, 1991^[26]
• Blera umbratilis (Williston, 1887)
• Blera violovitshi Mutin, 1991^[26]
• Blera yudini Barkalov, 1991^[26]

Image:Blera scitula 159321439.jpg|Western Wood Fly
Blera scitulaImage:Blera humeralis 2.png|Yellow-legged Wood Fly
Blera humeralis image:Blera pictipes whole.png|The Painted Wood Fly
Blera pictipesImage:Painted Wood Fly - Blera pictipes (50343751071).jpg|Painted Wood Fly
Blera pictipes

Notes and References

1. Book: Veen, M.P. van . Hoverflies of Northwest Europe, Identification Keys to the Syrphidae . hardback . 2004 . KNNV Publishing . Utrecht . 90-5011-199-8 . 254 .
2. Curran . Charles Howard . Notes and descriptions of some Mydaidae and Syrphidae. American Museum Novitates. 1953. 1645. 1–15.
3. Book: Stubbs . Alan E. . Falk . Steven J.. British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide . 2nd . 1983 . . London . 1-899935-03-7 . 253, xvpp .
4. Book: Shiraki . T. . Syrphidae (Insecta: Diptera). Fauna Japonica . 1968 . Biogeographical Society of Japan . Japan . Vol. II, 243 pp., XL pls.; Vol. III, 272 pp., XLVII pls..
5. Book: Macquart . Pierre-Justin-Marie . Diptères exotiques nouveaux ou peu connus. Tome deuxieme.--2e partie . 1842 . Roret . Paris . 5–140 . 6 July 2021.
6. Osten Sacken . Karl Robert . A list of the North American Syrphidae . Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. . 1875 . 3 . 38–71 . 22 July 2021.
7. Book: Walker. F.. List of the specimens of dipterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part III. 1849. British Museum (Natural History). London. 485–687.
8. Thompson . F.C. . Fabulous flower flies for famous fly fanatics (Diptera: Syrphidae). A tribute to the dipterists of the Canadian National Collection . The Canadian Entomologist . 2012 . 144 . 1 . 1–16.
9. Johnson . C.W. . On the Criorhina intersistens Walker and an allied species (Dipt.) . Entomological News . 1913 . 24 . 293–295 . 22 July 2021.
10. Stackelberg . A.A. . Species palaearcticae generis Cynorrhina (Dipt., Syrphidae) . Konowia . 1928 . 7 . 3 . 252–258 . 22 July 2021.
11. Pettersson. Roger B.. Bartsch. Hans D.. 2001. Blera eoa (Stackelberg, 1928), en ny stubb-blomfluga för Europa (Diptera, Syrphidae). Natur i Norr, Umeå. 20. 91–96. Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap. sv. PDF Adobe Acrobat.
12. Book: Huo . K.K. . Ren . G. . Zheng . Z. . Fauna of Syrphidae from Mt. Qinling-Bash in China (Insecta: Diptera) . 2007 . Beijing Huonzheng Printer LTD Co. . Beijing . 512 pp . Chinese.
13. Hervé-Bazin . J. . Syrphides recueillis au Japon par M. Edme Gallois . Annales de la Société Entomologique de France . 1914 . 83 . 398–416 . 22 July 2021.
14. Curran . Charles Howard . New Canadian Diptera, with a synopsis of the genus Cynorhina . The Canadian Entomologist . 1924 . 56 . 193–196.
15. Thompson . F. Christian . A new Oriental Blera (Diptera: Syrphidae) . Entomological News . 2000 . 111 . 3 . 181–184 . 25 July 2021.
16. Williston . Samuel Wendell . Contribution to a monograph of the North American Syrphidae . Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. . 1882 . 20 . 112 . 299–332 . 23 July 2021.
17. Shiraki . T. . 1930 . Die Syrphiden des japanischen Kaiserreichs, mit Berucksichtigung benachbarter Gebiete. Mem. Fac. Agric. Taihoku imp. Univ. . 1 . xx + 446 pp .
18. Coquillett . Daniel William . Two interesting new Diptera from Washington . Entomological News, and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia . 1894 . 5 . 125–126 . 23 July 2021.
19. Shiraki . T. . Studies on the Syrphidae. 2. Some new species from Japan with an interesting Trypetidae . Mushi . 1952 . 23 . 1–15.
20. Barkalov . A.V. . Cheng . X.Y. . A review of the Chinese species of the genus Blera (Diptera: Syrphidae) with description of a new species . Zoosystematica Rossica . 2011 . 20 . 350–355 . 24 July 2021.
21. Curran . Charles Howard . Contribution to a monograph of the American Syrphidae north of Mexico . The Kansas University science bulletin. . 1925 . (1924) 15 . 7–216, 12 pls . 23 July 2021.
22. Stackelberg . Aleksandr Aleksandrovich . Cynorrhina nitens sp. nov. (Syrphidae: Dipt.) . Supplta ent. . 1923 . 9 . 22–23 . 24 July 2021.
23. Book: Wiedemann . Christian Rudolph Wilhelm . Aussereuropäische zweiflügelige Insekten. Als Fortsetzung des Meigenschen Werks . 1830 . Zweiter Theil. Schulz . Hamm . xii + 684 pp., 5 pls .
24. Bigot . Jacques-Marie-Frangile . Diptères nouveaux ou peu connus. 22e partie, XXXII: Syrphidi (2e partie). espèces nouvelles, No 1er . Annales de la Société Entomologique de France . 1884 . 3 . 6 . 315–356 . 24 July 2021.
25. Curran . Charles Howard . New species of Canadian Syrphidae (Diptera). Pt. II . The Canadian Entomologist . 1922 . 54 . 14–19 . 24 July 2021.
26. Barkalov . A.V. . Mutin . V.A. . Revision of hover-flies of the genus Blera Billberg 1820 (Diptera, Syrphidae). II . Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie . 1991 . 70 . 736–749 . Russian.