Posted by Jordi Clavell on 08-10-2011 19:59
#1
Could someone help me identifying these Tephritis?. I think it's T. carmen. The photo (author: Fermín Torres) was made near Zaragoza, on 1.6.2008.
Thanks
Edited by Jordi Clavell on 09-10-2011 05:42
Posted by Nosferatumyia on 08-10-2011 20:46
#3
Sure, but my question: where does the border between T. carmen and pulchra lie?
Posted by Jordi Clavell on 09-10-2011 05:42
#4
Thanks for all your comments, Valery
I don't know the answer... Isn't pulchra a valid species?
Posted by Nosferatumyia on 09-10-2011 06:38
#5
The question concerns morphological characters to separate them. The fly on the picture show a small spot, which was considered to be absent in T. carmen.
And the species and their features hardly know that they are "valid" or "invalid". They have own areas of distribution and host plants those often overlap, and the valid species can have areas of hybridization, or other ways of gene drift.
Finally, we merely often have no idea of morphological variability range for some species, previously known from a few specimens, like T. carmen. This is why they deserve further studies and accumulation of dry and alcohol material (along with the photos, which have brought us a lot of discoveries).