Carolinian Elegant

Meromacrus acutus

"Meromacrus acutus", the Carolinian Elegant, is a species of syrphid fly in the family Syrphidae. This uncommon species is distributed in the Eastern United States and South America. Notable for the black and yellow pattern mimicking wasps.
Carolinian Elegant Hoverfly - Meromacrus acutus  Carolinian Elegant,Eamw hover fly,Geotagged,Meromacrus acutus,Orlando,United States,Winter

Appearance

Size:
Length 13–18 mm

Head:
The front has a broad black stripe and has yellow pile on the sides below the ocelli. The face is yellowish red, thickly clothed on the sides with whitish pollen and bright yellow pile. A broad median stripe and shining black cheeks mark the face. Sometimes there is a reddish broad black facial stripe. The antennae are reddish brown on raised antennifer with orange arista: The posterior orbits have abundant short yellow pile with a gap of black at the ocellar triangle.

Thorax
The thorax is shining black with vivid golden yellow markings.
Two black stripes with short black pile go from the front of the scutum to near the lateral sutures. There are paired bright yellow oval markings next to the humerus. Transverse yellow line running along lateral suture extending to the midlegs. An irregular yellow line runs in front of the scutellum laterally to under the postalar callus. The scutellum is brown with yellowish on its posterior border. The pleurae are black with yellow spot. The anterior spiracles and also just below the humeri there are light yellow spots, and there are a posterior pair of white spots on the sides of the metanotum.

Abdomen:
The abdomen is black and yellow.The first segment is black with paired oval spots of yellow pile on the hind part. The second segment is black with narrow with a posterior yellow margin. The third segment has a yellow pilose spot on each side in front, and a quite narrow yellow hind margin. The fourth is segment similar to third, but the spots smaller, and the hind margin very narrow or missing.
The male genitalia are described by Nayar.

Wings:
Wings are yellowish basally with the front edge dark smoky black, filling out the sub-costal, the marginal, submarginal, outer part of first basal, and the anterior part of first posterior cells. Notable venation: spurious vein present, R4+5 looping into r4+5, cell r2+3 is closed.

Legs
The legs are light reddish yellow except the hind femora is mostly black.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderDiptera
FamilySyrphidae
GenusMeromacrus
SpeciesM. acutus