Metopina formicomendicula Schmitz, 1927

Mostovski, Mike B., 2016, A review of scuttle fly genera of Israel (Diptera: Phoridae), with new records and an identification key, Zootaxa 4137 (1), pp. 61-72 : 67

Metopina formicomendicula Schmitz, 1927

Material. Israel: 1♀ Efrat [31°39'59"N 35°09'45"E], 4–5.iv.2016, M. Mostovski, pine forest, yellow pan trap.

Remarks. This rare European species was originally described from Germany and recently recorded in Czech Republic ( Šindlar, 2003) and north-eastern Italy ( Latella & Zanetti, 2004). Adults of this species were reported soliciting food from Solenopsis fugax worker ants ( Disney, 1994), which are also recorded in Israel ( Vonshak & Ionescu-Hirsch, 2009).

In the key to Israeli Metopina ( Mostovski, 2016) , females of M. formicomendicula run to M. ulrichi , from which they readily differ in having a considerably longer posterior portion of the abdominal tergite 5, as well as in non-elongated setae along the posterior margin of the abdominal tergite 4 and in lacking membranous evaginations with longish setulae in the posterior dorsolateral position on the fifth abdominal segment in fresh specimens.