DEXIINAE ← ChrisR ← Page 2

Mesembrinella (Calliphoridae, Mesembrinellinae) & Dexiinae (fg-taxon #16)

Apr

2009

This taxon group contains at least 7 species ranging in size, with a light brown ground colour, broad bodies and darker coloured abdomens. They have plumose antennae and quite a strong subscutellum but, after checking with the Manual of Central American Diptera (Brown et.al., 2009), it appears that most of them belong to the subfamily ...

fg-taxon #3 (Zelia sp.)

Apr

2009

This is a more typical tachinid – a dexiine with plumose antennae and a conventionally proportioned body and colouration. EDIT (Monty Wood 26/9/2010): This is a group of Zelia sp. – a very large and diverse genus.

Zelia sp. (fg-taxon #2)

Apr

2009

This taxon looks very similar to taxon #1 but it is subtly different. It closely resembles a box of “Zelia sp. indet.” in the NHM, London:

Scotiptera cf. venatoria (fg-taxon #7) 1

Apr

2009

The fly was bought for a few francs from a butterfly collector in Cacao and it came without any data but with the assurance that it was collected locally. The specimen was badly greased and at first appeared black but after a bath in ethyl acetate the true colours were revealed. The photo doesn’t really ...

Zelia sp. (fg-taxon #1)

Apr

2009

This taxon is a dexine tachinid with unusual markings on T3 and an elongate abdomen. It also has plumose antennae.

Beskia aelops (fg-taxon #44) 2

Apr

2009

This is a strange dexiine tachinid with and extremely long proboscis and long antennae. The curl on this specimen’s antennae may have been caused by the drying process when it was taken out of alcohol – I only have one specimen of this taxon so I have nothing else to compare it with. UPDATE (30/1/2010): ...

Cholomyia inaequipes (fg-taxon #46) 1

Apr

2009

This is a crazy-looking dexiine tachinid. This subfamily usually have quite elongate legs but this taxon takes it to extremes with hind legs that are actually twice as long as the rest of the body. The photo doesn’t show this very well but I decided to fold the legs up to protect them on this ...

Tachinid Recording News

Identifying slim, black tachinids with grey dusting May 30, 2020
I always seem to have difficulty identifying the slim black&grey tachinids in the tribe Blondeliini and Phyllomya volvulus in photos. This mini article is a work in progress but should give some clues and rules of thumb that might be useful: Phyllomyia volvulus: orange/yellow wing bases/calyptrae; long & strong abdominal bristles, often longer than […]
Identifying the bronze-black Spring tachinids April 14, 2020
Work in progress… Spring can be an exciting time for Dipterists, when the first species emerge and we all clamour to identify our first flies. However, a few of the species can be quite tricky to identify from photos because they look superficially quite similar. That said, it can be possible to identify most […]
How to identify greenbottles in photos September 15, 2019
There are a few greenbottle tachinids and one of them (Chrysosomopsis aurata) is incredibly rare so I thought it might be worth showing how to identify it from the others. It is on the wing in late summer so could be easy to confuse for commoner species: Hairy eyes and strong erect bristles on […]
Tachinids that look like Eriothrix rufomaculata August 18, 2019
Eriothrix rufomaculata is an incredibly common fly in mid-summer, especially on any flowery meadows. The species is very easy to identify from the red abdominal side-patches, silvery face with projecting mouth edge, long costal spine, slightly shaded wings with a small petiole on the median vein. The only problem is that several other, rarer, […]
A quick guide to the new UK phasiines August 17, 2019
This year we have been lucky enough to receive records for 2 new species to the UK – Ectophasia crassipennis & Phasia aurigera. These both bear a resemblance to Phasia hemiptera and have been confused with them in the past so I thought I’d put together a few pointers on how to spot them. […]