This week has been a good one for deliveries – today I received a parcel from my friend Yves. This is part of a batch…
Here are a couple of French Guianan Pantophthalmus spp. that I picked up from Erica’s volunteers at the NHM today (Pantophthalmus indet. on the left…
On Tuesday Erica McAlister lent me some pantophthalmids from a sample she had been sent by SEAG in French Guiana. Today I went through them…
This one keys out nicely to Austrophorocera but this determination will need confirming. The abdomen has a fascinating and highly distinctive tuft of orange hair…
Today I had a request for some specimens of Evaniidae from Ricardo Kawada, a PhD student and researcher in Sao Paulo. This forced me to…
The Surinamese batch of flies from Menno yielded quite a lot of male Cryptocladocera – here are just 2.
Acaulona & Xanthomelanopsis look very similar to Pennapoda spp. but without the leaf-like antero-dorsal bristles on the hind tibia. The only difficulty with these flies…
Here is Dave’s latest version of the Pelecotheca (Cryptocladocera) male – looking even better. To see Dave’s other photos click here.
Last night I went through a tray of tachinids with a plumose arista and was amazed to see this fly with an incredibly long, straight…
This specimen keys quite easily to Polygaster – it has the anterior katepisternal bristle ventral to the pleural suture and it has the trapezoidal scutellum…
Recently I have found quite a few small, black tachinids with a very plumose arista. Some are entirely black and others are a little dusted…
Needs confirmation but the lack of occellar bristles is fairly indicative.
Needs confirmation.
Needs confirmation.
This is an interesting tachinid with a hairy (not plumose) arista, shaded wing, strong subvibrissal bristles, bristled prosternum etc. It keys to Chaetona but this…
This is an interesting pair of specimens, both with short ‘tails’ and an ovipositor. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos but the specimens…
While examining what I thought was a Peruvian Mesembrinella (Calliphoridae, Mesembrinellinae) I realized that I was in fact looking at a tachinid – with a normal…
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…
This little Carcelia-like tachinid stood out from the rest of the Carcelia and Houghia spp. because the dusting was very different and the humeral callus…
As the name suggests these are dexiines that look remarkably similar to relatives of Sturmia, such as Winthemia. However these are clearly not Winthemia because…