fg-taxon #51 (Telothyria sp.)
A light brown tachinid with a slight similarity (in my eyes) to the sarcophagid subfamily Miltogramminae … and yes, it does have a strong subscutellum! 😉
EDIT (Monty Wood 26/9/2010): This is another Telothyria sp. – see also here. They all have branched hairs on the pleurae.
Say, what pins do you use? I’ve heard 000 are “head guillotines” since heads fall off as soon as you accidentally flick it.
Yes, pin choice is important and I always joke with my friends over their thin, ‘twangy’ pins.
Some people seem to labour under the impression that they have to choose the thinnest pin to avoid damage (not a bad idea!) but they also have a habit of pinning directly with 1 continental pin (for speed), and this last part is the problem because thin pins often bend too easily and they transmit all the vibrations right to the center of the specimen. If you have a look at my article on Collecting insects you’ll see what I do.
Basically, I stage everything that is big enough to fit on a stage and I use Watkins & Doncaster A1 & D3 micropins, which are small enough to cause the minimum amount of damage but give the best grip of the specimen. Each stage is made simply and quickly from a standard length of foam and a strong, thick #3 or #4 pin (as thick as you can get) and this means they are easy to pick up by hand and the specimen over all is protected well in the future 🙂