Can anyone help with IDs

[Arron]

Hi again,
Apologies for posting something not really macro or close up. I know these are not good photos, but I'm keen on getting these two identified. These were photographed in Sydney, Australia. I was out photographing rainbow bee eaters when one landed with a wierd looking very flat fly, and another with an orange wasp with a black band on abdomen. I have never seen the fly before and cant track it down. The wasp is a bit more common, but I've not been able to identify it.

Can anyone identify these two ? To family and genus level would be good enough.

cheers and thanks
Arron

[Harold Gough]

They are both two-winged flies (Diptera). They may both be hoverflies (Syrphidae). I can't match the larger one to any pictures on the internet and the smaller one would be recognisable only to someone familiar with the species.

Harold

[Arron]

Well I went back today, and saw a couple of the flies with the broad abdomen. They landed only momentarily, but long enough for me to see that they were probably robber flies. Interestingly, the broad abdomen is not really noticeable when at rest. I did a search and came up with Blepharotes spendidissimus, about which I feel reasonably certain.

I also got a closer look at the other one and came up with the Wasp-mimic Robber Fly - Chrysopogon proximus, as a possible, but much less certain about this one.

Any confirmation or other opinions welcome.

cheers
Arron

[Harold Gough]

The wings look typical:

http://sites.google.com/site/australian ... lepharotes

You have a typo, missing the "l" from splendidissimus.

Harold[/i]