Tachinid Recording News
- Siphona urbana or geniculata? September 9, 2013In Andersen’s 1996 book “The Siphonini (Diptera: Tachinidae) or Europe” he made several changes to the names of Siphona spp., which have proved a bit confusing. The changes (and subsequent reversions) illustrate a few nice aspects of modern taxonomy and so I thought I would write a little piece on what happened. Every species is […]
- Exorista rustica vs. tubulosa March 22, 2013I always find this species-pair really difficult to split – even when you flip out the male genitalia. The cerci are actually quite distinctive but without good photos you can try to convince yourself that a rustica (the common one) is a tubulosa (the uncommon one). The key is that tubulosa should be really very […]
- Help needed with DNA barcoding of European tachinids March 3, 2013Tachinid Times #26 has some very interesting articles on a few projects around the world to compile DNA phylogenies of tachinids. One such is by my good friend Jaakko Pohjoismäki, who is looking at European tachinids. He has a few genera and species that he is having trouble locating so I am listing them here in […]
- How to find the prosternum June 16, 2012The prosternum can be quite a difficult feature to find on a tachinid – partly because many British workers, used to Belshaw’s key will never have had to find it unless they have used the European or Palearctic keys. Here is a nice photo and the prosternum is the thin, dark, vertical strip of chitin […]
- Distinguishing species of Thelaira June 16, 2012In my experience a lot of people have trouble with this genus because the traditional features used in keys are quite variable. In particular it is difficult to separate the common Thelaira nigripes from the rare solivaga. All keys use the size of the outer-vertical bristles and the anterodorsal bristles on the middle tibia, which […]