Ecuador ← ChrisR

Leskia sp. (French Guiana & Ecuador)

Sep

2010

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

Masiphya sp. (Ecuador)

Sep

2010

This is a pair of Masiphya sp. – mantid parasitoids:

Jurinella sp. (Costa Rica & Ecuador)

Sep

2010

Determination by myself & Monty Wood.

This Calodexia came from a batch of flies kindly sent to me by Eric Fisher. Monty says that Calodexia are cockroach parasitoids and their oviposition technique may explain the strange down-pointing ovipositor:

Argyrophylax sp. (Ecuador)

Sep

2010

Determination 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 ...

Euglossine bees 2

Mar

2010

I have just been working through some euglossine bees that I obtained over the years from various sources – French Guiana (myself & Philip Soler) and Ecuador (Andrew Neild). With a little bit of keying (Mitchener’s “Bees of the World” & Lynn Kimsey’s key to the genus Exaerete) I discovered that they broke down to: ...

Xanthoepalpus bicolor (Nearctic) & Epalpus (Oxyepalpus) flavoscutellatus (Ecuador)

Jan

2010

This is an interesting “pair” of very similar-looking tachinids. One is Xanthoepalpus bicolor, a very distinctive species from the southern United States (this one is from Greenlee County, AZ). The other was collected in Ecuador (Napo, Rio Hollin, 1350m ASL) by Andrew Neild. There are no keys to this part of the world but after ...

Adejeania vexatrix (Nearctic) & look-alikes from Ecuador & Argentina 2

Jan

2010

Here is an absolute beauty that goes by the name of Adejeania vexatrix – note the extremely long palps protruding forwards and the long proboscis, in this specimen held under the body. The second specimen was taken in Ecuador (Napo, Rio Hollin, 1350m ASL) by Andrew Neild. This compares very favourably to specimens of Adejeania ...

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. […]