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 is a stalk-eyed fly from Western Malaysia, taken at about 3x magnification. The equipment was Canon 1000D + Schneider Componon 35mm f4 lens reversed…
It’s not often that you get this close to the very rare and tiny Microsoma exiguum (3mm), Cinochira atra (2mm) & Catharosia pygmaea (4-5mm). I…
Here are a few Pelecotheca (Cryptocladocera) sp. stacks. The technique involves taking about 30 photos, each at a different focal point in the specimen and…
Tony’s meadow in Cholsey has been a survey site for the Hornet Robberfly (Asilus crabroniformis) because it is the center of a thriving population and…
Today I received a small parcel of Diptera from Ulf in Paraguay – many thanks Ulf! 🙂 In the mix were lots of different families…
In this post I showed a species of Trichophora determined by Monty Wood. During a visit to the BMNH I discovered that there were no…
In this post I showed a Jurinia sp. from Bolivia, determined by Monty Wood. During a visit to the BMNH I discovered a species called…
Last week I spent a happy afternoon at the BMNH, courtesy of Erica & Nigel in the Diptera department. I decided to concentrate on a…
The Scarlet Tiger is a very local species of moth, found mainly in the southern England. Normally I find them on Moor Copse, a nearby…
Here are a few stacks of European tachinids make by Dave Dare the other day. The specimens are all on loan from the NHML (Armenian…
This weekend I have been having another look at the Armenian and Russian samples and hit the same problem … a really puzzling but very…
(updated, now that I have seen the specimens under a microscope! ;)) Today’s jaunt was to Cogden beach (Dorset, SY502881) to pick up a bit of…
Yesterday Malcolm Storey (bioimages.org.uk) brought over some new equipment he had just bought for photo-stacking, along with a ‘kit’ including a spare dSLR (3MP Nikon…
I have finally finished going through the tachinids that I caught last year and putting names to them. It wasn’t as hard as it might…
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 is a lovely little taxon, with matt-black ground colour and bright pale-grey bands of dusting on the thorax and abdomen. It fails to achieve…
This keys to Hyphantrophaga sp. but it needs confirming. EDIT (6/01/2011): Monty has said that this genus is quite anonymous and difficult to split ……
These photos illustrate 3 species of Mystacella – a tachinid that, like Chrysoexorista, is a beautiful metallic green (sometimes across the whole body, but at…