Diptera.info

Posted by kuv on 01-09-2015 11:55

Northern Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, near Hamburg, uncultivated area with meadows and bushes, altitude about 25 msm, Outsidefoto: kuv, 25th of May 2015. Comparing the pictures in the Diptera Gallery I think it could be Norellisoma spinimanum (male). Right? Please help.
Kuv

Edited by kuv on 02-09-2015 16:26

Posted by Sundew on 01-09-2015 14:35

Norellisoma should be ok. However, according to Fauna Europaea we have 6 species in Germany. I have no key except that by Stuart Ball (http://scathophag...agidae.pdf), who mentions three Norellisoma species, one of them not found in Germany. The remaining two differ in size, colour, and hairiness of the arista as well as in the habitat. The male 5th sternites and genitalia give important characters, but your male cannot be dissected :| (good for the fly, bad for science). I have no idea what the other species look like. So the pictures should better be labeled Norellisoma spec., even if the yellow colour speaks for N. spinimanum.
Regards, Sundew

Edited by Sundew on 01-09-2015 15:26

Posted by jonas on 02-09-2015 11:05

This is Norellisoma spinimanum.

I am finishing a paper on Norellisoma right now. This paper will have good habitus pictures (lateral, head, sternite 5) of all 6 Belgian species together with some interesting details on synonymies or whatsoever. I should try to submit it soon.

Ball's key is very bad for Norellisoma, so please do not rely on this. Unfortunately, indeed, one has to gather plenty of (mainly inaccesible) papers to identify Norellisoma.
But after a while, identification come easy since, especially males, are really striking.

About identity of N. spinimanum, I give you one paragraph of my publication to come:
Ozerov (2010) provided useful images of the male genitalia, and Šifner (1995) provided drawings of male and female genitalia. This species might be confused with N. alpestre (Schiner, 1864) and N. jeliniki Šifner 2008, both of which have a yellow thorax. To separate these, Šifner (2006) provided a short summary of characters of these three species (mainly wing venation, male genitalia and the shape of sternites).
Anyhow, together with distribution you do not have to doubt about N. spinimanum.