The specific name smaragdi comes from smaragd [via Latin from Greek smaragdos; emerald-coloured] which perfectly describes the brilliant green/blue body colour of this species.
As with many attractive widely distributed species this species was originally named by several authors from differing parts of its range and as a result there are a number of old synonyms including aurea (Macquart, 1851) type locality "Afrique"; splendida (Loew, 1873) type localities Sicily and Corfu. and cuprea (Becker, 1908) type locality Canary Islands.
Video images of this species from Italy http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KLFg_2012-10-15-%2842%29.webm
Description from McAlpine (1960)
Diagnosis: Length 2.5—3.0 mm. Rather stout, with cordate abdomen. Brilliantly polished, glistening golden-green to bronzy-blue in colour. All metatarsi yellow; calyptrae white, with pale fringes.
Male. Head in front view almost circular; scarcely wider than high. Compound eye large; in side view, occupying almost entire side of head. Frons strongly narrowed anteriorly; dull black in colour; often drying with a fovea-like wrinkle on each side; usually with a pair of rather strong, proclinate, bristle-like hairs arising on vitta immediately above lunule; ocellar, orbital and inner vertical bristles strong, subequal in size and strength; outer vertical bristle about one-half length and strength of inner vertical bristle. Orbits bare above orbital bristle. Face thinly silvery dusted; with a broad median carina which has a central groove from lunule to a point opposite apex of second antennal segment. Cheek (subgena) very narrow in lateral view; with a uniserial row of five bristles along mouth margin. Antennae short, not attaining mouth margin; third segment rather narrow, about twice as long as wide, usually entirely black. Arista short pubescent. Thorax glistening, golden-green to bronzy-blue with iridescent reflections; highly polished; pollen restricted above to narrow dusting along juncture of mesonotum and scutellum and margins of scutellum. Scutellum with 1—3 marginal setulae in addition to usual four scutellar bristles; often, though not always, with a pair of fine hairs between apical scutellar bristles. With a single stigmatal bristle, two or three strong anterodorsal and two posterior mesopleural bristles, and one sternopleural bristle. Calyptrae white, with pale yellow margins and fringes. Wings almost clear, with pale yellowish veins. All metatarsi yellow except at extreme apices; tarsi and legs otherwise dark brown to black.
Abdomen (Fig. 6) about as broad as long, cordate in outline, concolorous with thorax. Sterna five and six each with an elongate median apodeme. Genitalia (Figs. 9, 10) with a cleaver-shaped epandrium which is strongly bristled posteriorly. Surstylus divided into two lobes, a rather slender anterior lobe and a broad, blade-like posterior lobe which bears a row of setulae. Aedeagus with a simple, unsegmented, “C”-shaped shaft.
Female.—Similar to male but with frons much broader and less strongly narrowed anteriorly.Sixth sternum (Fig. 7) with a long median apodeme.
Ovipositor (Fig. 11) rather narrow, evenly tapered from base to apex; apical segment about as long as width of base of penultimate segment, with. a pair of short, subapical, posteroventrally directed, ventral hairs and a shorter pair of posterodorsal hairs immediately above the latter; in addition to these with a pair of posterodorsally directed hairs arising near base of dorsal surface. Spermathecae (Fig. 8) three; pyriform in lateral aspect, flattened on one side.
Probably dispersed by human activities such as transportation of fruit
For some time L. smaragdi was thought to be the only Lamprolonchaea species in the Palearctic and Middle east but MacGowan(2008) recorded L. metatarsata from the United Arab Emirates so care is required when confirming identificationsespecialli in the east of its range.
Has been recorded in Germany as an introduced species (Werner)