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 ...
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 ...
Recently I had a few chances to go back to the NHM in London and work with the world Diptera collections – it was marvellous! I took along some of my larger & more spectacular specimens from North & South America and tried to identify them (with varying levels of success!). I also took lots of ...
Just been looking at a few North American tachinids and picked out some rather nice-looking Leschenaultia – a genus of quite large, spikey tachinids with a lovely dense bristle comb on the hind tibia. One came pre-identified by Dan Hansen, so I know it is probably correct, but the other 2 just keyed to Leschenaultia ...
