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Hi,

This very colourful fly with dark blue wings I met in the rainforests of Paraty-Brazil close to a river, on the 21st of january 2010..

Thank you!
Myriam :)

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In the sun the wings looks brownish..

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But when in the shadow it shows the dark blue coloured wings, not a good pict. but it gives an idea..

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Tachinidae, Phasiinae, related to the genus Trichopoda I guess....
Greetings

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Ooops, not a Muscidae then!
Thanks you! I'd better change the name in the title..
Myriam

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Looks something like Homegenia nigripennis ... it is very similar to a photo I took at the NHM. Really we need specimens though so take a net next time ;)

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Wow soooooo many look-a-likes Chris!
Problem with dead flies is that they loose their colours, a pity..Photos in that sense are better to have them in their natural environment alive and with soul.
Maybe next time I can take better shots, my best dslr Canon with macrolens had let me down, so I had to use a compact, usually not being able to come close enough for much details..
But I do understand that even the best photos in some cases won't be sufficient, sigh..:(

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The problem is that everything in the photo is technically the same species ... and without close examination of genitalia, bristles & hairs we will never know.

The neotropical fauna is so under-studied that a lot (most?) are not classified yet and we are still unsure where the species boundaries are. That's why in the tropics it is even more important than in Europe to take specimens. It isn't that we can't identify them without a specimen. Without a specimen we simply don't have the primary research to be able to classify the fauna ... and without knowing which species an area has we will never have the information to protect them.

Politicians love to talk about protecting biodiversity but we know so little that any estimate of how many species a patch of forest has is likely to be a gross under estimate. If only we could classify all the species and know a little more about them we would be able to add more weight to the voices that protect them from destruction.

The photos are a lovely and tantalising glimpse of what you have seen - and they give us a nice idea of how they sit in life and how they behave. But (sadly) it's not possible to photograph the places we need to see without killing it. But killing a few will in the end help to protect the many :)

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Thank you Chris, you're most helpful and I appreciate it very much!
I do understand the reasoning too, protection is very much needed in Brazil!

Myriam :)