Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Tachinid Hegdehog ID? Wayquecha cloud forest Peru
Posted by pbertner on 16-07-2010 06:02
#1
Found in the cloud forest at 2900M where it is cold and damp year round.
Thanks!
Posted by ChrisR on 16-07-2010 08:46
#2
Fantastic fly ... totally impossible to identify of course ... but fantastic :D If you have any specimens then I would be happy to attempt to identify them over the next few years, but I can't guarantee anything ;) This looks like the kind of big tachinid that usually gets thrown into the genus
Scotiptera** but I am not sure if that is correct. About the only person who *might* know is Monty Wood in Canada but I'm pretty sure that he'd be fairly skeptical too, because so little is known about even the large species. :)
Neotropical Tachinidae, below Panama*, are in a total mess, with virtually no reliable literature and thousands of unclassified species. Even the classified ones are in a mess and there have been very few generic revisions since the original authors (some of whom had very strange ideas about taxonomy) gave them a name.
Anyway, I am very keen to take specimens from the neotropics but only on the basis that I will work on them at some time and I might be able to return a name in the future. Some are identifiable but a heck of a lot of work still needs to be done :)
* Monty Wood's key in the Manual of Central American Diptera (volume 2) will be published soon and will be a landmark revision of the fauna. The key is semi-natural so it might possible to take a specimen from Peru through it and arrive somewhere more or less in the right ballpark ... but that far south you'd be getting no more than an educated guess because the fauna is no much more diverse in the Andes.
**
Scotiptera are (I think) dexiines and should have plumose antennae and a central facial ridge - if you can see those features on the original photos :)
Edited by ChrisR on 16-07-2010 09:13
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 16-07-2010 08:58
#3
A great one! I would like to see one too! :D
Posted by conopid on 16-07-2010 09:30
#4
Oh boy - so much to see and so much still to be discovered!
Posted by ChrisR on 16-07-2010 09:56
#5
Yes, it's so important to collect and to begin working on neotropical groups ... when you look around there are very few people doing it and we need all the workers we can get :) Just get some specimens sent to you and contact whoever is the expert and start working together :)
Posted by pbertner on 17-07-2010 11:50
#6
Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for your detailed reply and having a stab at this. I'm definitely no dipterologist, but I would be happy to send specimens. I usually go down to the tropics once or twice a year for a couple of months, and would be glad to aid in the effort to further clarify their taxonomy. I guess if nothing else, the photos I post in the next while on here of S.A. diptera can be admired if not identified :)!
Paul
Posted by ChrisR on 17-07-2010 14:01
#7
Thx - PM sent :D
Posted by Zeegers on 17-07-2010 14:44
#8
Actually, there is a review of this group, by Malloch if I remember correctly. An older one.
Theo
Posted by ChrisR on 17-07-2010 14:54
#9
Do you have a reference for that article Theo? I have had a look through the Malloch articles I have here but they're all on Australasian Diptera. :) Google isn't coming up with anything relating to
Scotiptera either ... assuming that my educated guess is correct. :D
Edited by ChrisR on 17-07-2010 15:01