Chrysura sp. ?

[gbooth]

Hi there,
Long time since I have published anything.
I think I had already submitted this specimen; however I think I posted a different photo with a view that was a bit confusing.
I post three new ones to see if we can advance a bit.
Size was quite large, aprox. 10 mm. Shot in S Spain at 2000 masl in Sierra Nevada, 05_July_2008.

[Eckart Stolle]

I would agree. It cannot be a Pseudospinolia or such cos of the veination so it should be a Chrysura. But i'm not familiar with the spanish species so i can't go further.

[gbooth]

Thanks Eckart,
That gives me some confidence to try and find it better within Chrysura.
Actually I thought it was quite similar to C. austriaca.

[Eckart Stolle]

maybe but i dont know about austriaca in spain. to it actually looks a bit too slender for austriaca, too golden on the thorax and the ending of the last tergite not straight/broad enough..

Cheers
Eckart

[gbooth]

I have followed the keys for Chrysura in Iberia and I always end in C. austriaca that is typical of mountain areas (where I found this one) or in C. simplex that seems farther away from this specimen. C. austriaca seems to have a great variability in the blue/green tonality in the frontal part and it can have golden areas in lateral areas of scutum, scutellum and anterior part of the pronotum, like this one.

[Christian]

In general aspects your specimen agree with austriaca (from Central Europe)-Here is also some varitiy in color of thorax visible. Of course an ID by photo has to be taken carefully:

http://www.hymis.de/fotos/pictures/list ... 1=pictures

Christian

[chrysis]

Hi everybody,

this should be a male of Chrysura radians (Harris), I'm quite sure even if the colour could deceive.
You can clearly see that is a male of Chrysura for the shape of the antennae in photos n°1.
In Southern Europe (Spain and Southern Italy) living males of C. radians can have more golden and red highlights on the thorax and more purple or violet reflections on the abdomen, as written on Fauna Iberica. What could be strange is the dark colour of the wings. According to the specimens in my collection I can say that males have darken wings than females, while Mingo writes "hyaline wings" in general, without notice any sexual dimorphic difference. If you read some diagnosis in Fauna Iberica, you can find dark wings only related to Chrysura simplex, but this specimen do not belong to C. simplex because of the shape of F-I (which is longer) and of the punctuation on T-II (even if not clear) and the general colour.
Last, but not least, C. radians is probably the most common Chrysura in Southern European mountains and hills.

Cheers
Paolo

[paolo]

For Christian:

I took a look at http://www.hymis.de/fotos/pictures/list ... 1=pictures

the specimen in the second picture is not Chrysura austriaca but Chrysura trimaculata (easy to id for the punctuation on T-II and also for the general colour and hairs).

Cheers
Paolo

P.S.: I forgot .. for gbooth ... very nice pictures!

[gbooth]

Thanks Paolo,

I was lost with the hialine wings...