More Romanian tachinids
Here are the last of Alexandru’s batch of Romanian tachinids, caught in 2010. They spent a long time in alcohol so they are not in the best of condition but most of them should be easy enough to identify, I hope! There are lots of Tachina, a few Nowickia, Thelaira, Solieria, Billaea, Ectophasia, one Cylindromyia and absolutely NO Siphona – wohoo!!
EDIT: I have been working the specimens through the keys – starting with Tschorsnig & Richter (1998, the Manual of Palearctic Diptera) to get them to genus and then trying them in a combination of Mesnil in Lindner (Die Fliegen), Cerretti (Tachinids of Italy) and Tschorsnig & Herting (1994, the Central European key), depending on which key I feel gives me the best coverage.
Die Fliegen is old and has some old-fashioned taxonomic arrangements but it has the widest coverage, while Cerretti has more up-to-date keys and a wider scope but perhaps not 100% safe for Romania. T&H is the easiest and most comfortable key for me to use but has the worst range for Romania of the 3, so it is used with caution.
Species list:
Bithia immaculata* (4), Conogaster pruinosa* (1), Clytiomya continua (1), Cylindromyia pilipes, Cyrtophleba ruricola (1), Demoticus plebejus (many), Dufouria nigrita (1), Ectophasia crassipennis (many), E. leucoptera (1), E. oblonga (1), Eliozeta helluo (1), Exorista nympharum* (1), Exorista rustica agg., Estheria microcera* (2), Gymnocheta viridis (1), Gymnosoma clavatum (2), G. desertorum (1), G. inornatum* (1), G. rotundatum (1), Huebneria affinis (4 reared from Phragmotobia fuliginosa), Labigastera pauciseta* (1), Leucostoma anthracinum (1), Linnaemya picta (1), Loewia erecta (1), L. foeda (2), Lydella lacustris* (1 – under review – tentative ID), Macquartia pubiceps (1), Meigenia mutabilis (1), Microsoma exiguum (1), Mintho rufiventris (many), Nowickia ferox (1), Opesia cana (1), Peribaea tibialis (many), Phania funesta (1), Phasia obesa (1), P. pusilla (2), Phyllomya volvulus (1), Pseudogonia parisiaca* (1), Solieria pacifica (many), Stomina tachinoides* (1), Tachina fera (1), T. magnicornis (many), Thelaira nigripes, Voria ruralis (many), Zeuxia cinerea (2), Zophomyia temula (1) plus 1 “unknown”.
* new to me
That’s a total of 47 species of tachinid (9 of which were completely new to me), from 121 specimens 🙂
