11 Records

Cerotainia are small robber flies that prefer to perch on the tips of branches or tall plant stems. They fly sorties out to capture passing prey, and often return to the same perch. Once a search image is developed, these can prove quite common.Some experts do not consider this species and C. albipilosa to be specifically distinct. Eric Fisher's comment from BugGuide: "Cerotainia macrocera... is the original (and possibly the only) species of Cerotainia described for the U.S.A. (by Thomas Say, in 1823). A 2nd potential sp., C. albipilosa Curran, was described in 1930, and it has much more white hair [...]. However, there is still no certainty as to whether this 'white-haired morph' is a distinct species or just a color variety. (In 85 years, no one has evidently studied this question and published any results...) The possible 3rd Cerotainia in the USA is a fly, 'Cerotainia atrata Jones,' described from Nebraska in 1907. No one has ever reported on another specimen of this fly, and C. atrata is now termed to be an 'unrecognized' sp."