French Guiana ← ChrisR ← Page 2

Siphosturmia sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

These are 2 Siphosturmia spp. The first looks very like a Winthemia but on closer examination is has 4 katepisternal bristles, not 2. EDIT (05/10/2010): I am a little suspicious about the second specimen – I think I might have written the wrong name down because the humeral callus has a triangle of bristles, and ...

Pseudosiphona sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

The Pseudosiphona look superficially like a Siphona but with a much shorter labrum. You should also be able to just make out the strong ventral bristle on the katepisternum. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Pseudochaeta sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Pseudochaeta is another of the Carcelia-type tachinids, with large eyes, but it also lacks the tuft of hairs on the hind coxa, present on Carcelia. It also has a strong row of facial-ridge bristles. EDIT (09/10/2010): I have found a second specimen virtually identical to this one from Peru. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Phytomyptera sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Houghia sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Here are a few more Carcelia-like tachinids but this time belonging to the genus Houghia, which lacks the tuft of hairs on the hind coxa: Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Hypotachina chrysophora (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Ervia sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Crocinosoma sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

What a difference a day makes … 2

Oct

2010

Here I just wanted to show you how Chrysoexorista spp. loose their colour almost over night. This first photos show how the Chrysoexorista looked a few hours after it had been removed from the malaise trap alcohol and the last 3 show how it looks now:

Carcelia sp. (x2) (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

The genus Carcelia seems to be fairly ubiquitous around the world. The presence of the extremely deep eyes and very narrow strip of gena (the eye is at least 11x bigger than the gena) and the presence of a tuft of small hairs on the hind coxa is very distinctive. In the following photos the ...

a genus close to Borgmeiermyia (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010

Anisia sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

This genus is primarily a parasitoid of orthopterans. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Xanthomelanodes sp. (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

One of the commonest phasiine genera – note the strong divergent lateral scutellars. Determination by Monty Wood.

Winthemia sp. (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

Apparently Winthemia are pretty much the same the world over – 2 katepisternals with hairy parafacials. Determination by Monty Wood.

Zelia sp. (French Guiana & Costa Rica)

Sep

2010

This is a huge genus containing many superficially dissimilar species. Determination by Monty Wood.

Thelairodoria (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

Determination by Monty Wood.

Uramya (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

Uramya is one of the genera where the males have very long ‘tails’ … sadly this is a female! Determination by Monty Wood.

Neomintho macilenta (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

This genus is related to the multi-fissicorn genera, like Cryptocladocera & Cerotachina (all members of the Neominthoini but most do not have multi-fissicorn antennae) . This species is distinguished by having a completely black T5. Determination by Monty Wood.

Pennapoda & Xanthomelanodes sp. (French Guiana & Bolivia)

Sep

2010

Pennapoda & Xanthomelanodes are very commonly caught genera – being part of a group of very similar phasiine genera with shaded a costa and often with orange abdominal patches. Pennapoda closely related to the genus Trichopoda and both have leaf-like antero-dorsal bristles on the hind tibia, to a greater or lesser extent. Determination by Monty ...

Leskia sp. (French Guiana & Ecuador)

Sep

2010

Leskia is a diverse and quite common genus. Determinations by Monty Wood.

Tachinid Recording News

Thelyconychia solivaga January 23, 2015
Recently I have been working on adding a new species to the British list to our key. Thelyconychia solivaga is a small tachinid that seems to live on fairly stony/rocky coastal sites and is very rare in the UK – in fact only 3 specimens have been found so far (by Laurence Clemons in Kent […]
The problem with Phryxe … January 20, 2015
The genus Phryxe contains a few common species (nemea, vulgaris & heraclei) and a few very rare ones (magnicornis & erythrostoma). The key pulls out nemea first by the wide gap between the facial-ridge bristles and the descending parafrontals – wider than the width of antenna-3 plus the mustardy/yellow frontal area. Splitting off heraclei has […]
Gonia face colour January 20, 2015
In the keys to Gonia one of the couplets asks you to consider the shininess of the face but this can be a confusing thing to judge when you only have one specimen. In this mini article I have taken photos of the 2 choices to make it clear. The first thing to do is […]
Linnaemya picta, tessellans & rossica confusion features November 27, 2014
For many years Linnaemya picta had been confused with rossica because early workers (e.g. Fonseca) hadn’t tried using the European keys. Since the ‘discovery’ of picta in Kent it has spread across southern England as far as Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire & Berkshire and so now we have another fairly common black-legged species to confuse with tessellans. […]
Siphona urbana or geniculata? September 9, 2013
In 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 […]