Gallery Links
Users Online
· Guests Online: 20

· Members Online: 0

· Total Members: 4,950
· Newest Member: JeffersonA
Forum Threads
Theme Switcher
Switch to:
Last Seen Users
· ESant< 5 mins
· smol< 5 mins
· Haleun00:06:41
· Carnifex00:19:23
· RE Niks00:22:57
· Tony Irwin00:55:08
· Bernd Rotten...01:11:47
· weia01:25:29
· Jan Maca01:42:00
· Joerg Schneider01:47:42
Latest Photo Additions
View Thread
Diptera.info :: Identification queries :: Diptera (adults)
Who is here? 1 guest(s)
 Print Thread
Helina sp? (Muscidae)
Susan R Walter
#1 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 21:55
User Avatar

Member

Location: Touraine du Sud, central France
Posts: 1794
Joined: 14.01.06

Is this Helina sp? Female, 8mm, on flowering Anthriscus sylvestris Cow Parsley, Preston Montford Field Studies Centre, near Shrewsbury, north west England, 16 May 2006.
Susan R Walter attached the following image:


[146.31Kb]
Susan
 
http://loirenature.blogspot.com/
Susan R Walter
#2 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 21:55
User Avatar

Member

Location: Touraine du Sud, central France
Posts: 1794
Joined: 14.01.06

And a more dorsal view.
Susan R Walter attached the following image:


[117.38Kb]
Susan
 
http://loirenature.blogspot.com/
Kahis
#3 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 22:20
User Avatar

Member

Location: Helsinki, Finland
Posts: 1999
Joined: 02.09.04

It certainly looks like a Helina.
Kahis
 
www.iki.fi/kahanpaa
Susan R Walter
#4 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 22:25
User Avatar

Member

Location: Touraine du Sud, central France
Posts: 1794
Joined: 14.01.06

Hurrah!Grin

Many thanks Kahis - no chance of getting to species level I guess?
Susan
 
http://loirenature.blogspot.com/
Kahis
#5 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 22:27
User Avatar

Member

Location: Helsinki, Finland
Posts: 1999
Joined: 02.09.04

Quite good change I think - if you find someone who 1. knows Helina and 2. is more than half-awakeWink
Kahis
 
www.iki.fi/kahanpaa
Susan R Walter
#6 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 22:28
User Avatar

Member

Location: Touraine du Sud, central France
Posts: 1794
Joined: 14.01.06

Oh dear - the aftermath of all that Eurovision excitement I take it?
Susan
 
http://loirenature.blogspot.com/
Kahis
#7 Print Post
Posted on 21-05-2006 22:41
User Avatar

Member

Location: Helsinki, Finland
Posts: 1999
Joined: 02.09.04

Well, it is almost 01 am here in Finland. But I'm not sleepy at a..zzzzzzzzz
Kahis
 
www.iki.fi/kahanpaa
Robert Nash
#8 Print Post
Posted on 23-05-2006 16:40
Member

Location: Ulster Museum, Belfast, Ireland
Posts: 288
Joined: 11.11.05

Hi Susan Hard to use the key which early on relies on minute characters especially the presence of setulae on the underside of the radiocubital node (no glossary entry yet - a closeup photo would be great). However comparison with specimens in the collection here in Belfast (checked by Adrian Pont and Fonseca years back) indicates this may well be Helina duplicata (Meigen, 1826) a common species here and with you too. If you have a specimen I'll take a look at it or guide you through the key. How did you get it to Helina by the way? This is terrific progress.They are not easy without help in the early stages. Robert
HintPfft if you have Fonseca (RESL Handbook) PfftPfft take duplicata through the key backwards.

As was the case with Nikita's Pegomyia (gallery) this is well worth chasing up as reliably identified .... Am I repeating myself? Good galery candidate once the id is firmed up.
 
http://www.habitas.org.uk/rnash.html
Susan R Walter
#9 Print Post
Posted on 23-05-2006 22:02
User Avatar

Member

Location: Touraine du Sud, central France
Posts: 1794
Joined: 14.01.06

Robert

Not sure if my magnification capabilities are up to this, and I'll have to look up radiocubital node.Smile I am not quite sure how to take this forward now - I will sit on it and think for a couple of weeks. Thank you for your kind offer to look at it, and I will send it to you in due course, but not before I've done a bit more work. I don't have the RESL Handbook - indeed, shamefully, I don't have any of them. I think the problem has been, in the past, I've always wanted all of them and never been able to make up my mind, and more recently, I can't afford these little luxuriesSad

And how did I get to Helina? Ahem...well...the process went something like this:

I had borrowed Colyer and Hammond from Birmingham Uni library, and thought I had better read the chapter on Muscidae on the train up to Preston Montford, where I had to return the book. I took notes focusing on the differences between the genera, fortunately before the train broke down and I had to get off at Coventry, lugging ten ton of reference books. The next day at Preston Montford I caught a dozen species of diptera and set about identifying them. Three quarters of them were, from the outset, clearly Muscidanthos of different species, which was useful because I could compare them and use a process of elimination as often as not. I started by checking wing venation and facial hair to establish whether they were Muscidae or Anthomyiidae. Then I checked things like number of stripes on the thoracic dorsum and number of visible abdominal segments. I didn't have access to the internet, so I was just picking up little hints and tips from a variety of relatively general reference books. I knew that the 4th vein on Helina was supposed to 'curve gently backwards', a feature I thought this specimen might be exhibiting, and finally, the spots on the abdomen made me look at the picture in Insects of Britain and Western Europe. It does actually look quite like this if you know how to decode field guide illustrations, and indeed, the one in the book is H duplicata, but I don't dare go to species level these days based on Chinery. I hope you are not too horrifiedPfft

BTW, I often take things through the key backwards. I find it is quite a useful technique for clarifying something when you already have a fair idea what it is.
Susan
 
http://loirenature.blogspot.com/
Jump to Forum:
Similar Threads
Thread Forum Replies Last Post
Muscidae ID -> Hydrotaea armipes Diptera (adults) 5 27-03-2024 09:53
Muscidae (Phaonia?) ID -> P. cf subventa Diptera (adults) 3 27-03-2024 09:52
Helina evecta, male? --> Confirmed Diptera (adults) 4 22-03-2024 22:08
Muscidae: Phaonia rufiventris ♀ Diptera (adults) 4 22-03-2024 13:12
Muscidae: Mydaea? ID Diptera (adults) 5 18-03-2024 13:55
Date and time
28 March 2024 14:26
Login
Username

Password



Not a member yet?
Click here to register.

Forgotten your password?
Request a new one here.
Temporary email?
Due to fact this site has functionality making use of your email address, any registration using a temporary email address will be rejected.

Paul
Donate
Please, help to make
Diptera.info
possible and enable
further improvements!
Latest Articles
Syrph the Net
Those who want to have access to the Syrph the Net database need to sign the
License Agreement -
Click to Download


Public files of Syrph the Net can be downloaded HERE

Last updated: 25.08.2011
Shoutbox
You must login to post a message.

07.03.24 00:01
Some flies preserved in ethanol and then pinned often get the eyes sunken, how can this be avoided? Best answer: I usually keep alcohol-collected material in alcohol

17.08.23 15:23
Aneomochtherus

17.08.23 13:54
Tony, I HAD a blank in the file name. Sorry!

17.08.23 13:44
Tony, thanks! I tried it (see "Cylindromyia" Wink but don't see the image in the post.

17.08.23 11:37
pjt - just send the post and attached image. Do not preview thread, as this will lose the link to the image,

16.08.23 08:37
Tried to attach an image to a forum post. jpg, 32kB, 72dpi, no blanks, ... File name is correctly displayed, but when I click "Preview Thread" it just vanishes. Help!

23.02.23 21:29
Has anyone used the Leica DM500, any comments.

27.12.22 21:10
Thanks, Jan Willem! Much appreciated. Grin

19.12.22 11:33
Thanks Paul for your work on keeping this forum available! Just made a donation via PayPal.

09.10.22 17:07
Yes, dipterologists from far abroad, please buy your copy at veldshop. Stamps will be expensive, but he, the book is unreasonably cheap Smile

Render time: 1.56 seconds | 189,852,330 unique visits