EXORISTINAE ← ChrisR

3x Mystacella sp. (Peru)

Jan

2011

These photos illustrate 3 species of Mystacella – a tachinid that, like Chrysoexorista, is a beautiful metallic green (sometimes across the whole body, but at the very least on the thorax) in life but this fades to golden brown when dead. Mystacella have the vibrissae emerging quite high above the mouth edge and a very ...

Pelecotheca s.g. Cryptocladocera (male) (Surinam)

Oct

2010

The Surinamese batch of flies from Menno yielded quite a lot of male Cryptocladocera – here are just 2.

An amazing series of photo by Paul Bertner from the forests of Guyana

Oct

2010

Paul is a wildlife photographer and adventurer who contacted me a few months ago for tips on how to do serious entomology in the tropics for a trip he was planning. Paul is now trekking through Guyana with his backpack, cameras and laptop, taking photos of the wildlife he sees on his travels. He also reports ...

Stacking #2 2

Oct

2010

Here is Dave’s latest version of the Pelecotheca (Cryptocladocera) male – looking even better. To see Dave’s other photos click here.

Atactosturmia/Leschenaultia/Lespesia sp. ??? (Bolivia)

Oct

2010

This specimen is proving to be a real problem – it keys to Atactosturmia because it has 3 rows of small hairs outside the vibrissa and a bristle-comb on the hind tibia (amongst other things). But Monty things that it looks more like Leschenaultia or a black Lespesia, which only have 1 row of hairs outside ...

Drino sp. ??? (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Needs confirmation but the lack of occellar bristles is fairly indicative.

Stacking / compositing photographs 3

Oct

2010

Recently a local photographer called Dave Dare got in touch with me to ask if I could lend him some specimens so that he could practice macro photo stacking/compositing. This seemed a great opportunity for me to help someone out and also have some of my favourite specimens photographed with very deep focus. Dave has ...

Pseudochaeta sp. (Peru)

Oct

2010

This is a specimen of Pseudochaeta – a Carcelia-type tachinid but with a row of strong facial-ridge bristles.

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 ...

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.

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.

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 ...

probably Arrhinactia sp. (Peru)

Oct

2010

This is quite a distinctive and very common taxon in the peruvian samples. The fly has a clear dusting pattern and the tip of the abdomen is laterally compressed and knife-like. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

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.

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.

Masiphya sp. (Ecuador)

Sep

2010

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

Moreiria maura (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

This is quite distinctive little species – similar to Leschenaultia but different. Determination by Monty Wood.

Gonia crassicornis (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

This is apparently a common species around the Caribbean. Determination 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 ...

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 […]