Diptera.info

Posted by Calilasseia on 14-07-2014 01:24

The following specimen was observed in my locality (UK).

Location: Ordnance Survey grid reference SJ 5015 8555 (10 metre square).

Date: 2014-07-13, 13:30 BST.

Conditions: intermittent bright sunshine, warm, moderate breeze.

I hesitate to assign this even to a particular Family, given the fun I've had here in the past with Conopids and Syrphids, but I suspect it'll be in either of those two Families, once the experts here have given it the once over. Though I await, as always, to be wonderfully surprised at what I've found!

Photo is one of 6 taken of this specimen - I picked the one with the sharpest focus just in case it IS possible for the experts here to home in on a species ID. :)

Posted by Calilasseia on 17-07-2014 14:32

Valerio, a little help with what I should be looking for willl be appreciated. :)

Zeegers, thanks for the Genus ID! If I see this fly again, I'll bear your comment in mind about it not being one of the 'common' species, and try and take a voucher specimen for proper identification by my colleagues at Liverpool Museum. If I had any idea that I'd alighted upon something potentially special, I would have taken the specimen right there and then, but my usual approach is to leave specimens in the wild to continue breeding unless there is a compelling reason to capture them. Even specimens I capture for the USB microscope, because they're too difficult to work with in the field, are usually released afterwards unless I'm alerted to the need to keep a voucher specimen by someone in the know.

Posted by ValerioW on 17-07-2014 15:04

Now it has no use, you already know family and genus ;) Anyways scutellum got 2 strong stings, absent in conopids and quite typical of many soldierflies. The wing venation here isn't much clear, but you can notice it's not in the "cyclorrhapha" (I don't find now a more comprehensive term, so sorry if I use this maybe imprecise one) way.

Posted by Calilasseia on 20-07-2014 00:22

ValerioW wrote:
Now it has no use, you already know family and genus ;) Anyways scutellum got 2 strong stings, absent in conopids and quite typical of many soldierflies. The wing venation here isn't much clear, but you can notice it's not in the "cyclorrhapha" (I don't find now a more comprehensive term, so sorry if I use this maybe imprecise one) way.

Are you referring to those two small yellow tabs either side of the crescent shaped region? If you are, I'll look out for those in other species in future, as I've had a couple of Stratiomyids identified for me. :)