TACHININAE ← ChrisR

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.

Copecrypta sp. (Surinam)

Oct

2010

This is the first of a batch of flies sent to me by Menno Reemer and caught by him in Surinam in 2006. Copecrypta (and the allied genera Deopalpus & Itacuphocera) are some of my favourites. They all have an interesting ant- or beetle-shaped abdomen.

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.

Phytomyptera sp. (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

Det: Monty Wood, 2010.

Hypotachina chrysophora (French Guiana)

Oct

2010

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

Xanthophyto sp. (Bolivia)

Sep

2010

This is quite a distinctive genus – with the shaded rm. It belongs to the tribe Nemoraeini. Determination initially by me – confirmed by Monty Wood.

Trichophora sp. (Brazil)

Sep

2010

Determination by me – confirmed by Monty Wood.

Quadratosoma sp. (Bolivia)

Sep

2010

This is one of my favourites from the batch of Bolivian tachinids that Martin Hauser kindly gave me earlier in the year. Determined by me and confirmed by Monty Wood.

Parepalpus sp. (Bolivia)

Sep

2010

Determination by Monty Wood.

Leskia sp. (French Guiana & Ecuador)

Sep

2010

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

Macromya depressa (Costa-Rica)

Sep

2010

This is a large and very striking fly – Monty Wood has confirmed the genus ID and I made the ID to species.

Jurinella sp. (Costa Rica & Ecuador)

Sep

2010

Determination by myself & Monty Wood.

Jurinia notata & Jurinia sp. (French Guiana & Bolivia)

Sep

2010

Determinations by Monty Wood. EDIT (6/8/2011): After a trip to the BMNH I now believe that the first specimen is probably Jurinia notata.

Epalpus sp. (Bolivia)

Sep

2010

Determination by myself & Monty Wood.

Copecrypta (Bolivia, French Guiana)

Sep

2010

These 2 flies are either Copecrypta or a genus very close to it.

Chlorohystricia sp. (Costa Rica)

Sep

2010

This beautiful fly was given to me by John & Barbara Ismay who caught a few while in Monteverde, Costa Rica, after the 2010 International Diptera Congress. This genus belongs to a very unusual tribe (the Polideini) that look very similar to the Tachinini but that have a very distinctive metathoracic spiracle – made up ...

Chrysotachina sp. (French Guiana)

Sep

2010

Chrysotachina is a very distinctive genus of metallic coloured tachinids. They are not common but they do come up in samples quite regularly. They have been reared from Hesperidae. Determination by Monty Wood:

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 ...

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 […]