Brazil ← ChrisR

Some more stacking … 1

Oct

2011

Here are a few Pelecotheca (Cryptocladocera) sp. stacks. The technique involves taking about 30 photos, each at a different focal point in the specimen and using a macro-rail to slowly move the camera backwards or forwards. The focused parts of each photo are then combined using software called Zerene Stacker (Pmax setting) to make the ...

Archytas aurifrons, Townsend

Aug

2011

Last week I spent a happy afternoon at the BMNH, courtesy of Erica & Nigel in the Diptera department. I decided to concentrate on a few genera and try to identify a few neotropical specimens. My first was Archytas, a large genus with many very similar species, because I have a few quite atypical taxa ...

Homogenia sp. (Brazil)

Oct

2010

These quite large (>1cm) phasiines are obviously in the tribe Trichopodini but they only have small leaf-shaped hairs on the hind tibiae. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Trichophora sp. (Brazil)

Sep

2010

Determination by me – confirmed by Monty Wood.

Phasia sp. (Brazil & Bolivia)

Sep

2010

Determinations by Monty Wood.

Chrysoexorista sp. (Bolivia & Brazil)

Sep

2010

This genus is one of my favourites, but from the rather drab greasy-looking colouration you might be forgiven for wondering why? However, their gorgeous metallic green colours only show in life or when freshly removed from alcohol – but when they have dried out the colours are all lost and all that is left is ...

Blepharipa sp. (Brazil)

Sep

2010

Blepharipa is a familiar genus of palearctic flies to me, as I am sent them occasionally from European material. But it was quite a surprise to hear Monty say that I had a South American Blepharipa … different species of course (and unknown so far) but the same genus, nonetheless.

Archytas (French Guiana & Brazil)

Sep

2010

The following is a selection of Archytas sp. from both French Guiana and Brazil showing some of the immense diversity of this genus. Despite their huge variability Archytas spp. usually have a characteristic change in colouration between tergites 1-4 and tergite 5 – the whole abdomen is shiny but tergites 1-4 have a faint, pale ...

Actinochaeta sp. (Brazil)

Sep

2010

This lovely little Mintho-type fly was collected in Rondania, Brazil by Eric Fisher and was determined by Monty Wood:

Another fantastic parcel from Eric & Martin 3

Apr

2010

Today my postman huffed & puffed his way up the driveway with another box of specimens from Eric Fisher & Martin Hauser. My parcel wasn’t really all that heavy but I think the postie liked to make a point … he was feeling over-worked trying to get parcels to everyone before Easter 😉 Inside was ...

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 […]