Diptera.info :: Identification queries :: Diptera (adults)
 Scatophagidae
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| tyrolean |
Posted on 09-06-2012 17:28
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Member Location: Posts: 43 Joined: 24.05.10 |
I find members of this family very difficult to determine. Sifner's key is an example of a very badly constructed key with lots of unclear alternatives (For example: Fore tibiae interiorly with one or two rows of very short bristles or without them. versus Fore tibiae with or without anterodorsal row of distinct bristles) So there is never a convincing result and if I compare this to the key in Lindner by Sack the confusion gets worse. The fly was collected last summer in the Tyrol near the border to Italy at about 1700 m and is about 7 mm long tyrolean attached the following image:  [197.05Kb] |
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| tyrolean |
Posted on 09-06-2012 17:37
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Member Location: Posts: 43 Joined: 24.05.10 |
the abdomen is somewhat "edgy", as can be seen here ...
tyrolean attached the following image:  [181.09Kb] |
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| tyrolean |
Posted on 11-06-2012 21:08
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Member Location: Posts: 43 Joined: 24.05.10 |
... as I expected: not many specialists on this family around ... |
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| tyrolean |
Posted on 15-06-2012 08:40
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Member Location: Posts: 43 Joined: 24.05.10 |
After a renewed very careful comparsion of the descriptions in Sifner and Sack, I would name the specimen Sarcophaga taeniopa. The dark streaks on the dorsal side of the femora, the absence of distinctly developed propleural setae and the plumose arista pointed the way
Edited by tyrolean on 15-06-2012 08:40 |
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| mossnisse |
Posted on 15-06-2012 08:49
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 Member Location: Sweden, Umeå Posts: 442 Joined: 19.01.12 |
You can try Key to the British Scathophagidae (Diptera) Dr Stuart G. Ball (dipterist forum) and The Scatophagidae (Dipt.) Of Eastern Fennoscandia W. Hackman Fauna Fennica II 1956. They are more easy to use than Sifner but probably don't contain al the species in your region |
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| tyrolean |
Posted on 15-06-2012 14:17
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Member Location: Posts: 43 Joined: 24.05.10 |
Thank you for the hint, but,as you say, central Europe quite often contains several additional species, but for genera the keys you mentioned may be helpful. I would not call Sifner's key "difficult", it is just a bad key with all these ambiguous couplets, where you have to try both ways in order to exclude results, and in doing so, you sometimes come across another unclear choice, etc. A good key has two mutually exclusive alternatives and ideally no "and" or "or"; they must all be put in a logical sequence even if that means that several taxa key out several times. Writing good keys is all too often a totally neglected science. |
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