[Taxacom] Help with identification

[Doug Yanega]

If the illustration's depiction of the hairs (evenly-spaced, thickened 
rami, arranged in perfectly opposing pairs) is accurate, then I doubt 
this has anything to do with an insect. If, however, we assume that the 
drawing took "artistic liberty" and those were simply branched hairs, 
then this would correspond in general shape and setation to the 
trochanter of a bee leg. I specify general shape, however, because a bee 
trochanter is somewhat asymmetrical, and figures 9a and 9b show this as 
being perfectly symmetrical. The shape is not quite right for an 
antennal segment (scape or pedicel), either, nor a tarsomere, but I 
suppose an antennal pedicel is not entirely out of the question (the 
distal aperture of a pedicel should be more nearly circular, not a 
tapered oval, but we're talking about a lot of species of insects so I 
don't want to say "it's impossible"). A lot depends on how accurate the 
drawings are.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
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