Siphonini ← ChrisR

Some Neotropical Siphonini

Nov

2011

Today I went through some of the specimens in my World collection that had been labelled under the siphonine genera (Actia, Borgmeiermyia, Ceromya, Pseudosiphona etc.). Here are some photos: The Erythomelana is only “possibly” at the moment … it keys to that but I have never seen the genus so I have asked Monty Wood ...

Pseudosiphona sp. (Surinam)

Oct

2010

Pseudosiphona is a very common genus in the neotropics – in these photos you can see the small labellum (much shorter than in Siphona) and the katepisternal bristle arrangement (with the strong lower bristle close to the posteroventral edge) typical of this genus.

Pseudosiphona sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

The Pseudosiphona look superficially like a Siphona but with a much shorter labrum. You should also be able to just make out the strong ventral bristle on the katepisternum. Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Ceromya sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

As you might expect, the siphonines are well represented in the neotropics and familiar genera, like Siphona, Actia and Ceromya can be found. The group is quite easy to determine from the small size, hairy r4+5 (often also r1 and cu) and long, converging or parallel subapical scutellar bristles. Beyond that Monty’s key splits the ...

a genus close to Borgmeiermyia (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010

fg-taxon #63 (close to Borgmeiermyia sp.)

Apr

2009

(photographs to follow) At first glance just a small, black & grey-dusted tachinid but this taxon has hidden depth. The most distinctive feature when sorting is the orange coxae on all legs – a quite unusual feature. The male genitalia are also quite easy to spot, being quite rounded & hairy often with some orange-colouration. ...

fg-taxon #52 (Borgmeiermyia sp.)

Apr

2009

This is the other half of a pair of very similar taxa (see also fg-taxon #53). This one has a much longer antennal segment 3 and less thoracic dusting. And here is a rather spectacular specimen, which is presumed to be the female of this taxon. Note the swollen fore basitarsus; large piercer and opposing ...

fg-taxon #53 (Borgmeiermyia sp.)

Apr

2009

This is one of a pair of very similar taxa (the other is fg-taxon #52) – very small in size (3-5mm), with black body, orange legs and plain wings. This taxon has a shorter antennal segment 3 and a little more dusting. EDIT (Monty Wood 26/9/2010): This is a Borgmeiermyia sp. – but not one ...

Borgmeiermyia brasiliana (fg-taxon #11, ‘feather-face’ #2) 3

Apr

2009

This is a male of the second taxon to exhibit the highly modified antenna-3, shaped like a feather. All specimens of this taxon are between 4-5mm long and so the photographs are of quite low resolution. However, you should be able to see: the distinctive black body with golden dusting pattern; completely orange legs; slightly shaded ...

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 […]