About Palpada vinetorum (Fabricius, 1799)
This species, Palpada vinetorum (Fabricius, 1799), measures 10 to 14 mm in length. The head's frontal triangle is covered in white pile; the middle frons has a thin brownish stripe and yellow-brown pile extending to the eyes, with some blackish pile near the ocelli. The face is reddish-yellow, with whitish pollen and pile along the sides. The median stripe (tubercle) and cheeks are shining and somewhat brownish. Antennae are reddish-yellow, and the arista is bare. Males have holoptic eyes. The occiput is black on the upper section, with white pile on the lower section. The thorax's scutum has an opaque black base color with three distinct grayish-olivaceous crescent-shaped bands. The first gray band sits on the front border, the second lies just before the lateral suture, and the third, which is the broadest, is yellowish and located just in front of the scutellum. The pleurae are yellowish with grayish pollen. The scutellum is reddish-yellow with a lighter posterior border, and has long yellow pile along its posterior edge. The abdomen's first segment is black, with reddish-yellow coloring along the sides. The second segment has large reddish-yellow lateral spots that do not quite reach the hind border. The opaque black marking in the center of the segment is very narrow, broader toward the front, and extends across the segment just in front of the indistinct yellow-brown hind border. The third segment has a large reddish-yellow spot on each side, which is usually more reddish than the spots on the second segment, and it has a narrow yellowish hind border. A shining band crosses the middle of the segment, with an opaque black spot in front of the band and a band of the same color behind it. In female individuals, the yellow spots on the third segment are often smaller or entirely absent. The fourth segment has a shining cross-band on its front section, opaque coloring on its back section, and a broadly yellow posterior border. Wings are hyaline, with only the basal portion slightly yellowish, and have a brownish tinge below the stigma cell. Vein R1 is short petiolate, vein R4+5 is distinctly sinuate, and the spurious vein is distinct. The anterior and middle leg pairs are yellowish or reddish, with the base of the femora and the tip of the tibiae brownish. Hind femora are considerably dilated, usually broadly blackish, and sometimes deep red. The distal half of the hind tibiae is blackish.
