Hesse (1969) described this species as follows: Body mainly dark, reddish or purplish brownish, with violaceous reflections, especially on abdomen, the venter paler brownish; middle part of frons, narrow apices of antennal segments 1 and 2 and more than apical third of club more blackish; rest of antennae yellowish brownish; clypeus reddish brownish; sides of thorax above and two submedial, discal streaks appearing more black, separating paler, more obscurely yellowish ones; metanotum also with a central, broadish, more blackish streak as well as a faint and obscure submedial one on each side, the sides of metanotum however darker; bullae shining black, more narrowed towards dorsal end than towards ventral end, broadly interrupted dorsally; entire abdomen above and below without any yellowish hind margins; legs reddish brownish, apices of coxae, the trochanters, extreme apices of femora, extreme bases of tibiae, extreme apices of tibiae, apices of tarsal segments, and more than apical halves of claws black. Integument of body rather dullish, only subshining; central part of frons and greater part of pleurae more shining; thorax above with a broadish sublateral streak on each side and a broad central one (separated by a narrow central, shining streak) dull, due to fine leathery or shagreen-like microsculpture; last two abdominal tergites more or less transversely wrinkled. Vestiture rather poorly and sparsely present, the greater part of body and greater middle part of abdomen bare; sparse longish hairs on head in frontand below entirely dark brownish; sparse and much shorter ones on sides of thorax above and even the still shorter, sparse, decumbent ones along the more shiny streaks on disc, as well as sparse ones on metapleural prominence in front of halteres and the sparse ones on sides of tergite 1, also dark brownish; those in a small patch in front of postalar calli black; reversed and stiffish hairs on last two abdominal segments very dark, blackish brown or black; short, decumbent hairs on legs black, slightly denser on tibiae and tarsi; spines and spicules on legs reddish brownish, those on tarsi above black; fine, silvery greyish tomentum or pubescence present along eye-margins of face, behind eyes, along extreme sides of thorax above, in front of postalar calli, on sides in anterior half of metanotum, and more obscurely on posterior half of pleurae. Head with the interocular space on vertex rather narrowish, subequal in width to space between eyes on head below across lower margin of buccal cavity, the inner margins of eyes converging above and below level of antennae; antennae rather stoutish, shorter than thorax (excluding scutellum); segment 1 about 2.5 times length of 2; segment 3 stoutish, becoming slightly thickened apically, a little shorter than club, the latter elongate, amphoriform, a little less than a fourth of its base constricted segment-like; proboscis shorter than vertical length of an eye, but in comparison with the two preceding species long, projecting much beyond buccal cavity, covered with rather conspicuous hair-like spinules, especially below; palps well developed, nearly twice length of antennal segment 2; postvertical spines present, bristle-like and blackish. Wings uniformly tinted yellowish brownish throughout; veins yellowish brownish; hind border of wings narrower than first and third posterior cells; apex of discoidal cell shortly stalked; hind margin of squamae whitish; halteres and their knobs brown. Legs with the hind femora slightly thickened, armed below with a row of spines, from near base, becoming duplicated apically; basal segment of hind tarsi somewhat thickened, much longer than claw-segment. Oviscape with 5 or 6 reddish or fulvous spines on a side. Length of body: about 20 mm; Length of wing: about 15 mm.

South Africa.

South Africa, Eastern Cape, Queenstown (V. Whitehead, Jan. 1950) (Hesse 1969).

The information below was extracted from Cannings and Scudder (2005): Dipterans are primarily aerial insects and the mesothorax, which bears the only pair of wings, dominates the thorax - the prothorax and metathorax are greatly reduced. The legs are normally rather simple and are used primarily for perching; in some groups, they are modified for prey capture or for signalling during courtship. The tarsi are nearly always 5-segmented. The functional wings are membranous and their pattern of veins is critical in fly classification and identification. During the evolution of flies, there has been a trend towards a reduction in veins, especially in the rear half of the wing – changes that evidently relate to improvements in two-winged flight. The hindwings, present in most other insects, are reduced in Diptera to small, club-like organs, called halteres, used for stabilising flight.

Herbivore - Nectarivore (nectar-eating)

In South Africa, individual flies are invariably found resting on the ground or sand in open space between bushes, very frequently in paths made by animals or man (Hesse 1969).

Like the others, flies in the Mydidae family begin life as an egg, which hatches into a grub-like larva. Most of the fly life is spent in the larval stage, mainly eating and growing as well as molting several times. Some flies may spend at least a year as a larva. The next stage is a pupa, during which the insect transforms into its final stage, emerging from the pupa as a winged adult, able to mate and reproduce. In many species, males stake out positions at favourable egg-laying sites and wait for females to arrive (Hesse 1969).

The specimens of this genus mainly collected from August to February (with one record in March) (Kirk-Spriggs and Sinclair 2017).