Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Asteiidae? No, Meoneura, Carnidae

Posted by John Bratton on 23-04-2013 16:27
#1

This keyed to Asteiidae, and from there to Leiomyza scathophagina, but I don't think I am correct. It doesn't look much like the Asteiidae in the gallery, has too many dorsocentrals and the costa ends too soon for Asteiidae according to Colyer & Hammond. Any suggestions, please?

Wing length 1.5 mm. It emerged a few days ago from an old bird nest collected in a North Wales oakwood last October.

John Bratton

Edited by John Bratton on 25-04-2013 15:41

Posted by Mark-uk on 23-04-2013 19:03
#2

Diastata ?

Posted by Nosferatumyia on 23-04-2013 19:32
#3

A Meoneura (Carnidae)

Posted by John Bratton on 24-04-2013 11:13
#4

Thanks very much. I have a Meoneura key, but I think it relies largely on male genitalia so I probably won't get very far. Maybe some males will emerge from the nest.

John

Posted by John Bratton on 25-04-2013 15:35
#5

Another female and a male emerged yesterday and the male is M. neottiophila. The terminalia are a good match to the drawing in Collin's 1930 Entomologists' Monthly Magazine key.

I originally got to the wrong family because the AIDGAP key by Unwin says vein 4 does not reach the wing margin, whereas there is a very faint vein going all the way, visible in the first photo. Perhaps if it is as faint as that, it is not counted as a vein.

John

Posted by John Bratton on 25-04-2013 15:37
#6

Another picture of the genitalia, without the pin so not so extruded.