ChrisR

Tachinid Recording News

• Exorista rustica vs. tubulosa March 22, 2013
  I 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, 2013
  Tachinid 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, 2012
  The 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, 2012
  In 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 […]
• Eurithia – female sternite 6 May 29, 2012
  These are some figures from Tschorsnig & Herting (1994), showing the sternite 6 of some female Eurithia spp.: A – Eurithia consobrina (furrow along entire length) B – Eurithia connivens (furrow on only anterior half) C – Eurithia vivida & intermedia (anterior indentation) Unfigured (sternite domed) – Eurithia caesia & anthophila (slightly) […]